MongoDB Output

AEL considerations

When using the MongoDB Output step with the Adaptive Execution Layer, the following factor affects performance and results:

Spark processes null values differently than the Pentaho engine. You will need to adjust your transformation to successfully process null values according to Spark's processing rules.

General

Enter the following information in the transformation step name field.

Step Name: Specify the unique name of the MongoDB Output step on the canvas. You can customize the name or leave it as the default.

Options

The MongoDB Output step features several tabs with fields. Each tab is described below.

Configure connection tab

The Configure connection tab enables you to specify the database and collection for your output.

Enter the following information in the transformation step fields:

Field	Description
Host name(s) or IP address(s)	Specify the network name or address of the MongoDB instance(s). You can also specify a different port number for each host name by separating the host name and port number with a colon. You can input multiple host names or IP addresses, separated by a comma.
Port	Specify the port number of the MongoDB instance or instances. Use this to specify a default port if no ports are given as part of the host name(s) or IP address(es) field. The default value is 27017.
Enable SSL connection	Specify to connect to a MongoDB Server that is configured with SSL.
Use all replica set members/mongos	Select to use all replica sets when multiple hosts are specified in the Host name(s) or IP address(s) field. If a replica set contains more than one host, the Java driver discovers all hosts automatically. The driver connects to the next replica set in the list if the set you try to connect to is down.
Authentication database	Specify the authentication database.
Username	Specify the username required to access the database. If you want to use Kerberos authentication, enter the Kerberos principal in this field.
Password	Specify the password associated with the username. If you are using Kerberos authentication, you do not need to enter the password.
Authenticate Mechanism	Select the method used to verify the identity of users. The values are `SCRAM-SHA-1` and `MONGODB-CR`.
Authenticate using Kerberos	Select to specify authentication using Kerberos.
Connection timeout	Specify (in milliseconds) how long to wait for a connection to a database before terminating the connection attempt. Leave blank to never terminate the connection.
Socket timeout	Specify (in milliseconds) how long to wait for a write operation before terminating the operation. Leave blank to never terminate the operation.

Output options tab

The Output options tab provides additional controls for inserting data into a MongoDB collection. If the specified collection does not exist, it is created before a document is inserted.

Enter the following information in the transformation step fields:

Option	Description
Database	Specify the target database for the output. When a valid hostname and port has been set, you can click Get DBs to retrieve the names of existing databases within a selected database.
Collection	Specify the target collection for the output. When a valid hostname and port has been set, you can click Get Collections to retrieve the names of existing collections within a selected database. If the specified collection does not exist, it will be created before data is inserted.
Batch insert size	Specify the batch size for bulk insert operations. The default value is 100 rows.
Truncate collection	Select to delete existing data in the target collection before inserting new data.
Update	Sets the update write method for the specified database and collection. The Upsert and Modifier update options are not available unless the Update field is selected.
Upsert	Select to change the write method from insert to upsert. The upsert method replaces a matched record with an entire new record based on all the incoming fields specified in the Mongo document fields tab. A new record is created if match conditions fail for an update.
Multi-update	Select to update all matching documents for each update or upsert operation.
Modifier update	Select to enable modifiers (`$` operators) to be used to modify individual fields within matching documents. All matching documents are updated when the Multi-update option is selected. To update more than one matching document, select Modifier update and Upsert. Selecting Modifier update, Upsert, and Multi-update applies updates to all matching documents, instead of just the first.
Write concern (w option)	Specify the minimum number of servers that must succeed for a write operation. The values are: -1 Disables all acknowledgement of write operation errors 0 (Zero) Disables basic acknowledgment of write operations, but returns information about socket excepts and networking errors 1 Acknowledges write operations on the primary node >1 Wait for successful write operations to the specified number of slaves, including the primary. Click Get custom write concerns to retrieve custom write concerns that you have stored in the repository.
w Timeout	Specify time (in milliseconds) to wait for a response to write operations before terminating the operation. Leave blank to never terminate.
Journaled writes	Select to set write operations to wait until the mongod (the primary daemon process for the MongoDB system) acknowledges the write operation and commits the data to the journal.
Read preference	Specify which node to read first `Primary` `Primary preferred` `Secondary` `Secondary preferred` `Nearest` The default is Primary. The Read preference is available when Modifier update is selected.
Number of retries for write operations	Specify the number of times that a write operation is attempted.
Delay, in seconds, between retry attempts	Specify the number of seconds to wait before the next retry.

Mongo document fields tab

Use the Mongo document fields tab to define how field values coming into the step are written to a Mongo document. The Modifier policy column controls when the execution of a modifier operation affects a particular field. You can use modifier policies when the data for one Mongo document is split over several incoming PDI rows or when it is not possible to execute different modifier operations that affect the same field simultaneously.

Enter the following information in the transformation step fields:

Column	Field Description
Name	Names of the incoming fields.
Mongo document path	The hierarchical path to fields in a document in dot notation format.
Use field name	Whether to use the incoming field name as the final entry in the path. The values are `Y` (use incoming field names) and `N` (do not use incoming field names). When set to `Y`, a preceding period (.) is assumed.
NULL values	Whether to insert null values in the database. The values are: Insert NULL Ignore
JSON	Indicates the incoming value is a JSON document.
Match field for update	Indicates whether to match a field when performing an upsert operation. The first document in the collection that matches all fields tagged as Y in this column is replaced with the new document constructed with incoming values for all the defined field paths. If a matching document does not exist, then a new document is inserted into the collection.
Modifier operation	Specify in-place modifications of existing document fields. The modifiers are: N/A $set Sets the value of a field. $inc Sets the value of a field if the field does not exist. If the field exists, increases (or decreases, with a negative value) the value of a field. $push Sets the value of a field if the field does not exist. If the field exists, appends the value of a field. $ (the positional operator for matching inside of arrays).
Modifier policy	Controls when execution of a modifier operation affects a field. The values are: Insert&Update The operation is executed whether or not a match exists in the collection (default). The lnsert&Update modifier policy (upsert) allows you to specify fields to match when performing an upsert operation. Upsert only replaces the first matching document. Modifier upserts can be used to replace certain field values in multiple documents. Insert The operation is executed on an insert only (when the match conditions fail) Update The operation is executed when match conditions succeed.
Get fields	Populates the Name column of the table with the names of the incoming fields.
Preview document structure	Opens a dialog showing the structure that will be written to MongoDB in JSON format.

Example

Here is an example of how you can define a document structure with an arbitrary hierarchy. Use the following input data and document field definitions to create the example document structure in MongoDB:

Input data

first, last, address, age
Bob, Jones ,"13 Bob Street", 34
Fred, Flintstone, "10 Rock Street",50
Zaphod, Beeblebrox, "Beetlejuice 1", 356
Noddy,Puppet,"Noddy Land",5

Document field definitions

Name	Mongo document path	Use field name	NULL values	JSON	Match field for update	Modifier operation	Modifier policy
first	top1	Y		N	N	N/A	lnsert&Update
last	array[O]	Y		N	N	N/A	lnsert&Update
address	array[O]	Y		N	N	N/A	lnsert&Update
age	array[O]	Y		N	N	N/A	lnsert&Update

Document structure

{
  "top1" : {
    "first" : "<string val>"
   },
  "array" : [ { "last" : "<string val>" , "address" : "<string val>"}],
  "age" : "<integer val>"
}

Create/drop indexes tab

MongoDB Output Create or drop indexes tab

Use the Create/drop indexes tab to create and drop indexes on one or more fields. Unless unique indexes are being used, MongoDB allows duplicate records to be inserted. Indexing is performed after all rows have been processed by the step.

Enter the following information in the transformation step fields:

Field	Description
Index fields	Specify a single index (using one field) or a compound index (using multiple fields). Compound indexes are specified by a comma-separated list of paths. Use dot notation to specify the path to a field to use in the index. An optional direction indicator can be specified: `1` for ascending or `-1` for descending.
Index opp	Specify whether to create or drop an index.
Unique	Specify whether to index only fields with unique values.
Sparse	Specify whether to index only documents that have the indexed field.
Show indexes	Click Show indexes to display a list of existing indexes.

Create/drop indexes example

The following graphic shows the specification of a compound index of the "first" and "age" fields in ascending order:

MongoDB Output Create or drop indexes example

Metadata injection support

All fields of this step support metadata injection. You can use this step with ETL metadata injection to pass metadata to your transformation at runtime.