Database Integration in Express.js
Explore how to integrate MongoDB into your Express.js applications using Mongoose. Learn to establish connections, define data schemas and models, monitor connection events, and handle graceful shutdown to manage persistent data effectively.
Web applications often need to store data beyond the lifespan of a single server session. While arrays and objects can store data temporarily, they do not persist across server restarts, making a database necessary for long-term data management.
A database solves this problem by providing a structured way to store, retrieve, and manipulate data. With a database, we can:
Store and retrieve data across multiple server instances.
Query data efficiently using indexes.
Ensure data integrity through structured schemas.
Scale applications to handle large amounts of data.
SQL vs. NoSQL: Choosing the right database
Databases fall into two broad categories:
SQL (relational): These databases store data in tables with predefined schemas. Examples include MySQL and PostgreSQL. They use SQL for querying and ensure data consistency through strict relationships between tables.
NoSQL (Non-relational): These databases store data in flexible formats like key-value pairs, documents, or graphs. Examples include MongoDB and Firebase. They allow dynamic schemas and scale horizontally to handle large amounts of data efficiently.
For this course, we use MongoDB, a NoSQL database, because it integrates well with Express.js and stores data in an easy-to-read JSON-like format.