Integrate MongoDB with Drupal

Verify the prerequisites.

To create the Quick Start application, install the following software in your development environment:

Start a MongoDB replica set.

To use MongoDB with Drupal, you must run a MongoDB replica set. Perform the following steps to prepare and start a local three-node replica set:

1. Increase your ulimit value to resolve system resource limitations.

   Drupal creates multiple files and indexes in a short period of time. From your terminal, run the following command to set the ulimit to 64000, which prevents your replica set from crashing:

   ulimit -n 64000

2. Deploy your replica set.

   After increasing your ulimit, follow the instructions in the Deploy a Self-Managed Replica Set for Testing and Development tutorial to deploy and initialize a replica set. Ensure that your replica set is named rs0 and has three members running on ports 27017, 27018, and 27019.

Create a database user.

Create a user with the necessary permissions for the Drupal database by performing the following steps.

1. Run the following command from your terminal to connect to your replica set in mongosh:

   mongosh "mongodb://localhost:27017,localhost:27018,localhost:27019/?replicaSet=rs0"

2. In the mongosh shell, run the following command to enter the admin database:

   use admin

3. Then, run the following command from your shell to create a user:

   db.createUser({
      user: "<database username>",
      pwd: "<database user password>",
      roles: [
        { role: "readWrite", db: "drupal" },
        { role: "dbAdmin", db: "drupal" }
      ]
   })

   Replace <database username> and <database user password> with your preferred credentials. Save these values for use in future steps.

Install Drupal.

From a new terminal window, run the following commands to create a Drupal project named drupal-quickstart:

composer create-project drupal/recommended-project:11.1.5 drupal-quickstart
cd drupal-quickstart

Then, install the MongoDB module by running the following command:

composer require drupal/mongodb:^3.1

Apply the Drupal core patch.

The Drupal core PHP files require a patch to work with MongoDB. Navigate to your drupal-quickstart/web directory and apply the patch by running the following commands:

cd web
git apply -v modules/contrib/mongodb/patches/drupal-core-11.1.5.patch
cd ..

Create the settings file.

From your drupal-quickstart directory, navigate to the web/sites/default subdirectory and run the following commands:

cd web/sites/default
cp default.settings.php settings.php
chmod 777 settings.php
cd ../../..

These commands copy the default settings file into a new file named settings.php and update this file's permissions to allow Drupal to write new content.

Configure file permissions.

To allow Drupal to modify your public files, create the files directory and set its permissions by running the following commands from your drupal-quickstart directory:

mkdir -p web/sites/default/files
chmod -R 777 web/sites/default/files

Then, specify the location of these files by verifying that your web/sites/default/settings.php file contains the following value:

$settings['file_public_path'] = 'sites/default/files';

Start the PHP development server.

From your drupal-quickstart directory, run the following command to start the built-in PHP web server:

php -S localhost:8080 -t web

If successful, this command outputs the following information:

[Date Time] PHP 8.3.0 Development Server (http://localhost:8080) started

Complete the web installation.

Open http://localhost:8080 in your web browser to launch the Drupal installation wizard. Then, configure your project by selecting the following responses.

$this->ignoreNotImportedAnnotations = (boolean) $bool;

$this->ignoreNotImportedAnnotations = (bool) $bool;

1. On the Choose language page, select English and click Save and continue.

2. On the Choose profile page, keep Standard selected and click Save and continue.

3. On the Set up database page, select MongoDB as the database type and provide the following information:

   • Database name: drupal

   • Database username: The database username that you configured with the createUser command in a previous step

   • Database password: The database password that you configured with the createUser command in a previous step

   • SRV connection format: Leave unchecked

   • Database replica set: rs0

   • Host #1: localhost, port 27017

   • Host #2: localhost, port 27018

   • Host #3: localhost, port 27019

   Click Save and continue.

4. Drupal installs the required modules. This might take several minutes.

5. On the Configure site page, provide the following information:

   • Site name: Enter Drupal on MongoDB.

   • Site email address: Enter any email address. You can use a non-existent address.

   • Username: Choose an admin username.

   • Password: Choose a strong password.

   • Receive email notifications: Uncheck this box.

   Click Save and continue.

Secure your settings files.

After installing Drupal and configuring your site, Drupal no longer requires write access to your settings files. To secure these files, run the following commands from your drupal-quickstart directory:

chmod 555 web/sites/default
chmod 444 web/sites/default/settings.php

View your Drupal home page.

After installation completes, your site redirects to the Drupal home page. Your site resembles the following image:

Access the Drupal administration interface.

Click Content in the navigation bar at the top of the page. Then, click Add content > Article.

Create an article.

On the Create Article page, perform the following actions:

1. In the Title section, enter "Welcome to My Drupal Site".

2. In the Body section, enter the following text:

   This is my first article on Drupal with MongoDB!
   All content is stored as JSON documents in MongoDB.

3. Select Menu settings and check the Provide a menu link box.

4. Click Save.

View your published article.

After saving, you can see your published article. Your site resembles the following image:

View your data in MongoDB.

To verify that your content is stored in MongoDB, perform the following steps:

1. Open a new terminal window and connect to your MongoDB replica set in mongosh.

   Run the following command from your terminal:

   mongosh "mongodb://localhost:27017,localhost:27018,localhost:27019/?replicaSet=rs0"

2. Enter the drupal database and view the collections.

   Run the following commands in your mongosh terminal:

   use drupal
   show collections

   Drupal creates multiple collections to store different types of content, including the following:

   • node: Stores content nodes

   • users: Stores user accounts

   • config: Stores configuration data

3. View your article data.

   To view information about your article, run the following command in your mongosh terminal:

   db.node.find().pretty()

   VIEW OUTPUT

   [
     {
       _id: ObjectId('...'),
       nid: 1,
       vid: 1,
       type: 'article',
       uuid: '...',
       langcode: 'en',
       node_all_revisions: [
         {
           ...
         }
       ],
       node_current_revision: [
         {
           ...
         }
       ],
       node_latest_revision: [
         {
           ...
           title: 'Welcome to My Drupal Site',
           created: ...,
           changed: ...,
           promote: true,
           sticky: false,
           default_langcode: true,
           revision_default: true,
           revision_translation_affected: true,
           node_latest_revision__body: [
             {
               bundle: 'article',
               deleted: false,
               langcode: 'en',
               entity_id: 1,
               revision_id: 1,
               delta: 0,
               body_value: '<p>This is my first article on Drupal with MongoDB!<br>All content is stored as JSON documents in MongoDB.</p>',
               body_summary: '',
               body_format: 'basic_html'
             }
           ],
           node_latest_revision__comment: [
             {
               bundle: 'article',
               deleted: false,
               langcode: 'en',
               comment_status: 2,
               entity_id: 1,
               revision_id: 1,
               delta: 0
             }
           ]
         }
       ]
     }
   ]

   This command returns a JSON document that contains your article text and metadata.