Mongoose-seedr NPM

mongoose-seedr

mongoose-seedr lets you seed your database with fake data. In case when you need to insert data into a database that is linked to another data you can easily set references and it will automatically connect collections and populate database. This way, we don't have to manually link them together.

Installation

$ npm install mongoose-seedr --save-dev

Usage example

// seedDatabase.js
const seedr = require('mongoose-seedr');
const path = require('path');

seedr.seed({
    databaseURL: 'mongodb://localhost:27017/seed-test',
    seed: [
        {
            documents: path.join(__dirname, 'users.js'),
            collection: 'users'
        },
        {
            documents: path.join(__dirname, 'pets.js'),
            collection: 'pets'
        }
    ]
});

Run script and voila, you seeded your database.

$ node seedDatabase.js

Fake data example

users.js and pets.js are JS files with fake data that will be inserted into database.

users.js

module.exports = [
    {
        firstName: 'Terrence',
        lastName: 'Hudnall',
        pets: [
            'ref:pets._id',
            'ref:pets._id'
        ]
    },
    {
        firstName: 'Jordan',
        lastName: 'Kelly',
        pets: [
            {
                size: 'ref:pets.size',
                name: 'ref:pets.name'
            }
        ]
    }
]

pets.js

module.exports = [
    {
        name: 'Nacho',
        size: 'small'
    },
    {
        name: 'Pepper',
        size: 'big'
    }
]

As we can see in the previous example, users.js file holds the list of users. An user have pets array that have references to documents in pets collection. In this case, we're using ref: followed by collection name and property that we want to get from document in another collection. mongoose-seedr will pick random document from that collection and pull out property that you've specified.

Configuration

Configuration object that you pass into the seed method:

Prop name	Description	Type	Default	Required
`databaseURL`	url to database	`String`	-	`true`
`seed`	array of seed objects	`Array`	-	`true`
`seed[].documents`	File path to the JS file that contains fake documents	`String`	-	`true`
`seed[].collection`	Name of a collection that will be inserted into a database	`String`	-	`true`
`dropDatabase`	Defines if script should drop a database before inserting a fake data	`Boolean`	`true`	`false`
`referenceKey`	Prefix key which you're using to link documents between collections	`String`	`"ref:"`	`false`