What is the difference between install MongoDB standalone or through npm?

Question

I am pretty new for MEAN and just went some round trip (half day install and uninstall MEAN and everything with it?) and do not want to do it again.

The MongoDB I installed on Windows8 is working and already built as a Windows Service. However, then I saw that there is a thing called npm install mongodb. I now do not know what should I do.

Is there a difference of using the default MongoDB installed already as a windows service vs running npm install mongodb?

What should I do if the MongoDB is meant for MEAN stack build up at this point, but I also wants it to open and maybe use for other purpose.

Answer 1

When you execute npm install mongodb, it will install node module from npm.js. It is just a driver for node.js to connect to a mongo database, so that is not a database engine itself. For analogy, it's like PDO driver from PHP: if you have pdo_mysql, it doesn't mean you have MySQL Server installed.