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Setting Up MongoDB

There are a number of things you must do before study compass is ready to run on your machine. Make sure you have asked James for the .env file, as that will be necessary for starting the setup.

Before following the steps in this tutorial, make sure you have the necessary tools installed. If you're not sure, you can check by running all the following commands in powershell or zsh:

mongodump
mongorestore
mongod

If any of the above commands cause errors, you do not have the necessary tools installed.

Step 1: Download and Install Mongo Community Server and Tools​

If you have all the necessary tools installed, you can skip this step.

Install MongoDB Community Server:​

  1. Download Community Server: Download the Community Server from the MongoDB website, I would recommend downloading as msi. Make sure to run the msi after download. This step may take a few minutes, and will download the community server as well as the MongoDBCompass application.

  2. Locate MongoDB Bin: Locate the bin directory inside your MongoDB installation directory. For example, it might be C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\<version>\bin. MongoDB might also be inside Program Files (x86)

  3. Add To Path: Open Environment Variables, select Path under System Variables, click Edit, and add the bin path as a new variable.

  4. Verify Installation: To verify that the installation has been executed directly, restart powershell, and run the following command:

    mongod

    This action should not cause any errors.

Install MongoDB Tools​

  1. Download Mongo Tools: Dowlnoad the Mongo Tools from the MongoDB website. I would recommend downnloading as msi. This should install the mongodump and mongorestore executables.
  2. Locate Mongo Tools Bin: Locate the bin directory inside your MongoDB installation directory. For example, it might be C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Tools\bin. Mongo Tools might also be inside Program Files (x86).
  3. Add to Path: Reference above steps, add the bin path.
  4. Verify Installation To verify that the installation has been executed directly, restart powershell, and run the following command: 
    mongodump
    mongorestore
    This action should not cause any errors. You may have to halt the execution of the commands (this is normal and means that the tools have been installed correctly).

Step 2: Export the MongoDB Atlas Database​

First, you need to export your MongoDB Atlas database to a BSON (Binary JSON) file. You can use the mongodump tool for this. Make sure you have your own Mongo Atlas URL (should be given by James)

  1. Export the Database: Use mongodump to export your database. You need your MongoDB Atlas connection string, which you can find in the Atlas UI.

    mongodump --uri="your-atlas-connection-string" --out=/path/to/dump
    note

    Your path to dump is just a temporary storage location so the location isn't very important. A good example would be C:\Users\<usename>\dump

    Replace your-atlas-connection-string with your actual connection string and /path/to/dump with the path where you want to save the dump files.

Step 3: Import the Dump into Your Local MongoDB Instance​

Next, you need to import the BSON files into your local MongoDB instance.

  1. Import the Database: Use mongorestore to import the BSON files into your local MongoDB.

    mongorestore --db studycompass /path/to/dump/studycompass
    note

    For the mongorestore path, just take your dump path and add studycompass at the end. For example, if my dump path was C:\Users\James\dump, the monogrestore path would be C:\Users\James\dump\studycompass

    Replace your-local-db-name with the name you want for your local database, /path/to/dump with the path to the dump files, and your-atlas-db-name with the name of the database from MongoDB Atlas.

Step 4: Verifying Database​

Open the MongoDBCompass App, click connect. Under Databases, if you see the studycompass database, the database has been installed correctly.