What is the best practice to connect/disconnect to a database?

Question

I'd like to know how to work with connectivity to a database in MEAN stack application. In particular, when should I create a connection to a database and when should I destroy a connection to a database. Should I create and destroy a connection on every new HTTP request or should I store a once created connection and use it for any subsequent requests as long as possible. I use Mongoose as a modeling tool.

Here is an example. This is my routes.js file with a route /index. A request to this route should fetch some date from MongoDb database. It bothers me how I connect and disconnect to a database now. Yes, I connect and disconnect to a database exactly as written in Mongoose docs, but it it the right way to do it in a serious production environment?

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();

var config = require('./db-config');

// I create a Mongoose instance as a module object,
// as opposite to create it in every request handler function below.
var mongoose = require('mongoose');

var productSchema = require('../db/productSchema'); // model schema is also a module-wide object

// And here is a request handler function.
// It is called on every request as a brand new.
// I create and destroy a database connection inside this request handler
router.get('/index', function(req, res, next) {

    // I connect to a database on every request.
    // Do I need to do it here in a request handler?
    // May I do it outside of this request handler on a module-wide level?
    mongoose.connect('mongodb://my_database');

    // I create a new connection here in a request handler.
    // So it lives only during this request handler run.
    // Is this the right way? May I do it outside of this request handler 
    // on a module-wide level and somehow keep this connection and use it 
    // in every subsequent requests to this or any other route in the app?
    var db = mongoose.connection;

    db.on('connecting', function() {
        console.log('connecting');
    });

    db.on('connected', function() {
        console.log('connected');
    });

    db.on('open', function() {
        console.log('open');
    });

    db.on('error', console.error.bind(console, 'connection error'));

    db.once('open', function(cb) {
        var Product = mongoose.model('Product', productSchema);
        Product.find({category: "books"}, function(err, prods) {
            if (err) return console.error(err);

            // I close a connection here in a callback. 
            // As soon as successfully fetched the data. 
            // Do I need to close it after every request? 
            // What is the right place and time to do it? 
            db.close(disconnect);
            res.json(prods);
        });
    });
})

Found some good answers:

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/142065/creating-database-connections-do-it-once-or-for-each-query

What are best practices on managing database connections in .NET?

Answer 1

Its best practice to have your db connection in a separate module (db.js)

var mongoose = require('mongoose')

mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/dbname', function(){
    console.log('mongodb connected')
})
module.exports = mongoose

Each model should have a separate module that takes in the db connection (post.js)

var db = require('../db.js')
var Post = db.model('Post', {
    username: {type: String, required: true},
    body: {type: String, required: true},
    date: { type: Date, required: true, default: Date.now }  
})

module.exports = Post

Then whenever you need to use that data set just require it and make calls

var Post = require('/models/post')
Post.save()
Post.find()

Answer 2

This is an opinion based question I'd say. What I use for my app is

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.sendfile('index.html');
});
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/my_db'); 

This way I create a connection once rather than on every HTTP request. Your way should work fine but it seems you will have to connect and disconnect the db to your app way too many times specially when the app is in development.

Answer 3

You want your connection to act like a singleton so as mentioned in the answer above it makes sense to do it outside of, and preferable before your routes:

var compression = require('compression');
var express  = require('express');
var app      = express();
var port     = process.env.PORT || 8080;
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
var bodyParser   = require('body-parser');
var session      = require('express-session');
...

app.use(compression());
// db
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var configDB = require('./config/database.js');
mongoose.connect(configDB.url); // connect to our database

config/database.js:

module.exports = {
'url' : '@localhost:27017/dbname'
};