Beginning MongoDB Atlas with .NET: Flexible and Scalable Document Data Storage for .NET Developers

Table of Contents....5

About the Author....11

Acknowledgments....12

Introduction....13

Chapter 1: Choosing MongoDB....14

Relational vs. NoSQL Databases....14

What Is a Relational Database?....14

Advantages of a Relational Database....17

Simplicity....17

Normalization....17

Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability (ACID)....18

Data Accuracy....19

Disadvantages of a Relational Database....19

Performance....19

Scalability....19

Flexibility....20

Cost....20

Complexity....20

What Is a NoSQL Database?....20

Key-Value Database....21

What Are the Main Features of a Key-Value Database?....21

What Are Examples and Use Cases for Key-Value Databases?....21

What Are the Advantages of a Key-Value Database?....23

What Are the Disadvantages of a Key-Value Database?....23

Wide-Column Database....24

Examples and Use Cases for Wide-Column Databases....24

Advantages of Wide-Column Databases....24

Disadvantages of Wide-Column Databases....25

Graph Database....25

What Are the Main Features of a Graph Database?....25

What Are Examples and Use Cases of a Graph Database?....26

What Are the Advantages of a Graph Database?....27

What Are the Disadvantages of a Graph Database?....27

Document Database....28

What Are the Main Features of a Document Database?....28

What Are Examples and Use Cases of a Document Database?....28

What Are the Advantages of a Document Database?....30

What Are the Disadvantages of a Document Database?....31

So Why Choose MongoDB?....31

Summary....31

Chapter 2: What Is MongoDB?....32

The Beginning of MongoDB....32

MongoDB Server (On-Premises)....34

Enterprise Advanced....34

Community Edition....34

MongoDB Atlas....35

Database....35

Replica Sets....35

Sharding....36

Aggregation....38

Serverless....41

Data Federation....41

Data Lake....42

Search....42

Atlas CLI....42

Atlas App Services....43

Triggers....43

Functions....43

Authentication....44

Data API....45

Realm....45

Device Sync....46

Charts....46

Summary....47

Chapter 3: Creating an Account....49

Creating Your MongoDB Account....49

Google Account....50

GitHub Account....52

Create a New Account....53

Finalizing Your New Account....56

Summary....58

Chapter 4: Creating Your First Cluster and Loading Sample Dataset....59

Creating Your First Cluster....59

Loading Sample Dataset....64

Summary....67

Chapter 5: Browsing Your Data....68

Atlas UI....68

Reading Data....68

Creating or Updating Data....71

Deleting Data....74

Mongosh....75

Reading Data....78

Creating Data....79

Updating Data....79

Deleting Data....80

MongoDB Compass....80

Reading Data....81

Creating, Updating, or Deleting Data....84

Aggregation Builder....85

Visual Studio Code Extension....88

Reading Data....90

Creating Data....91

Updating Data....92

Deleting Data....92

Data API....93

Reading Data....94

Creating Data....95

Updating Data....96

Deleting Data....96

Drivers....97

GraphQL....98

Reading Data....102

Creating, Updating, and Deleting Data....102

Summary....104

Chapter 6: Creating the Application....105

Tooling....106

.NET SDK – CLI....106

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)....109

Visual Studio 2022....109

JetBrains Rider....110

Cleaning Up....112

Summary....112

Chapter 7: Adding MongoDB....114

Add the MongoDB NuGet Package....114

Store Connection String....115

Fetch Your Connection String from Atlas....115

Add the Connection String to Our Application....117

Create a MongoDB Client....118

Retrieving a List of Databases....119

Final Code....120

Summary....122

Chapter 8: Creating and Interacting with Documents from Code....123

Adding the Model....123

Creating the Service....125

Updating to Use the Service....126

Adding Create Methods to the Service....126

Adding Read Methods to the Service....127

Adding an Update Method to the Service....127

Adding a Delete Method to the Service....128

Creating a Controller....128

Final Code....132

Program.cs....132

Game.cs....133

GamesDatabaseService.cs....134

GamesController.cs....135

Summary....137

Chapter 9: Testing the Endpoints....138

Creating Documents....139

Creating One Document....139

Creating Many Documents....140

Reading Documents....141

Reading All Documents....141

Reading One Document....142

Updating a Document....143

Deleting a Document....144

Summary....145

Chapter 10: Schema Validation....146

Data Modeling....146

Validating for Required Fields....147

Handling Invalid Documents....149

Specifying Data Types for Fields....150

Specifying Allowed Values for a Field....151

Applying Validation to Existing Documents....153

Allowing Invalid Documents on an Ad Hoc Basis....155

Finding Invalid Documents to Update....155

Schema Anti-Patterns....158

Summary....159

Chapter 11: What Next?....160

Adding a UI....160

Using .NET MAUI and Atlas Device SDKs....161

Visualizing Your Data....161

Searching Your Data....162

Atlas Search....162

Atlas Vector Search....162

Play with the Sample Data....163

Learn More....163

Summary....164

This book is a tutorial on MongoDB customized for developers working in Microsoft .NET 6, .NET 7, and beyond. It explains the differences between relational database systems and the document model supported by MongoDB, and shows how to build .NET applications that run against a MongoDB database, especially one in the cloud.

Author Luce Carter kicks things off by teaching you how to determine when to use a document database versus a relational engine. After that, she walks you through building a Microsoft .NET project combining the MongoDB Atlas cloud database as a service solution with a .NET. application. In the process, you will learn how to create, read, update, and delete data in MongoDB from any .NET project.

You will come away from this book with a solid understanding of MongoDB’s Developer Data Platform and how to use it from your .NET applications. You’ll be able to connect to MongoDB in the cloud and take advantage of the flexibility and scalability that MongoDB’s document storage model provides, and you’ll understand how to craft your applications to run using document storage and the MongoDB database engine.

What You Will Learn

• Know when to use the MongoDB document model
• Build .NET applications that connect to MongoDB for data storage
• Create MongoDB clusters on the MongoDB Atlas cloud platform
• Store data in MongoDB Atlas
• Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) data from .NET Web API projects
• Test your CRUD endpoints using RESTful operations
• Validate schemas to help protect against breaking changes

Who This Book Is For

.NET developers who are looking for an alternative to relational databases, and those looking for a flexible and scalable document storage solution for use from .NET applications. Additionally, anyone wanting to learn MongoDB in the context of .NET and C# will benefit from this book.