MongoPopulator

MongoPopulator populates a MongoDB database with placeholder data. It is built upon Populator by Ryan Bates, but it works with the mongo gem in standalone scripts, and therefore is not tied to any particular framework.

Installation

gem install mongo_populator

Usage

This gem adds a #populate method to a Mongo::Collection. Pass the number of documents you want to create along with a block. In the block you can set the field values for each document.

require 'rubygems'
require 'mongo_populator'

db = Mongo::Connection.new("localhost", 27017).db("test-db")    

article_collection = db.collection('articles')
article_collection.populate(100) do |article|
  article.title       = MongoPopulator.words(4..6).capitalize
  article.slug        = article.title.downcase.tr(' ','-')
  article.published   = true
  article.created_at  = (Time.now - 604800)..Time.now
  article.body        = MongoPopulator.paragraphs(5..7)
end

Relationships

Unlike the original Populator, we are letting MongoDB set each ObjectId. This makes setting up relationships only slightly more laborious.

article_collection = db.collection('articles')
article_collection.populate(100) do |article|
  ...
end

# create array of article _ids to select from
article_ids = db.collection('article').distinct('_id')

comment_collection = db.collection('comments')
comment_collection.populate(1000) do |comment|
  ...
  comment.article = article_ids
end

That will create an average of 10 related comments for each article.

Shuffle through set of values

Passing a range or array of values will randomly select one.

...
person.gender = ['male', 'female']
...

This will create 1000 to 5000 men or women with the annual income between 10,000 and 200,000.

Fake values

If you need to generate fake data, there are a few methods to do this.

MongoPopulator.words(3) # generates 3 random words separated by spaces
MongoPopulator.words(10..20) # generates between 10 and 20 random words
MongoPopulator.sentences(5) # generates 5 sentences
MongoPopulator.paragraphs(3) # generates 3 paragraphs

For fancier data generation, try the Faker gem.

Mongo-specific values

Setting an attribute with the #skip method prevents that attribute being set. This is useful when you only want a field to appear in some documents

...
address.state = MongoPopulator.skip if address.country != "United States"
...

So, to support conditional setting of an attribute, pass it an array with one or more MongoPopulator.skip as elements.

...
user.creds = ['M.D.', 'J.D.', 'N.D.', MongoPopulator.skip, MongoPopulator.skip]  
...

~40% of users will not have the "cred" field.

If you actually want a field in your document to be set to NULL, pass nil as the value.

... user.style = nil # 'style' key will not be in resulting document ...

To persist arrays in your documents, use either #items to save a certain number of items randomly selected from a set, or #array to save a specific array.

MongoPopulator.items(1..5, %w(ape bear cat dog elephant firefox)) # populates array with provided terms
MongoPopulator.items(10..20) # populates array with random words
MongoPopulator.array('red', 'green', 'blue') # saves `['red', 'green', 'blue']` exactly

Note that you cannot pass #skip in #items, #dictionary, or #array. Doing so will result in an error.

user.fruit = MongoPopulator.items(3, ['apple', 'banana', 'kiwi', MongoPopulator.skip]) #=> Error

To persist a static dictionary to your document, use #dictionary.

MongoPopulator.dictionary(:name => "Mongo", :type => "db")

Embedded Documents

To embed documents, use #embed. It takes a dictionary template, which accepts any of the Populator constructs. See note below in "Known Issues."

@collection.populate(1) do |parent|
  parent.name = "Bunny Sr."
  parent.kids = MongoPopulator.embed(10..20, {:name => ["Bunny Jr.","Fluffy","Other Fluffy"], :age => (1..20), :tattoos => ["butterfly", "banjo frog", MongoPopulator.skip]})
end

The above code generates a record with 10 to 20 embedded documents, roughly one-third of which have a 'tattoo' field.

Known issues

• Data generation methods like #words or Faker methods will not return varying data within a set when used in embedded document templates. Instead a random value will be picked the first time, and used for the entire set.

Development

Problems or questions? Add an issue on GitHub or fork the project and send a pull request.

Special Thanks

MongoPopulator is built upon the work of Ryan Bates via Populator. Thanks, Ryan.