Colonize

Scalable Mongoose seeding

• Modular seeding: split your seeding into multiple files
• Dynamic seeding with relationships between seeding files

Getting started

npm install colonize --save-dev

Usage

We're gonna demonstrate the usage by the demo setup which exists in the test folder, so check that out for a full example.

Let's take a look at the following example Mongoose models:

models/organisation.js

const mongoose = require('mongoose')
const Schema = mongoose.Schema
 
const organisationSchema = new Schema({
  name: {
    type: String
  }
})
 
const Organisation = mongoose.model('Organisation', organisationSchema)
 
module.exports = Organisation

models/user.js

const mongoose = require('mongoose')
const Schema = mongoose.Schema
 
const userSchema = new Schema({
  email: {
    type: String
  },
  name: {
    type: String
  },
  ownedBy: {
    type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
    ref: 'Organisation'
  }
})
 
const User = mongoose.model('User', userSchema)
 
module.exports = User

As you can see, the User model has an ownedBy field which refers to an organisation. So when we have seeding we want to have a setup that supports these kinds of situations, and that's exactly why colonize is perfect. It's super small (only about 200 loc) and smart.

• Create your seeding folder, for example: ./test/seeding
• Create your first seeding file in the folder, let's say organisation.

test/seeding/organisation.js

module.exports = [
  () => ({
    model: () => require('../models/organisation'),
    refName: 'organisations',
    entities: [{
      refName: 'primary',
      data: {
        name: 'Apple'
      })
    }]
  })
]

The file exports an array of functions, why becomes clear later on. Each of those functions is called a seeding set. A seeding set requires the following properties:

• model: a function that exports the model: model: () => require('../models/organisation')
• refName: a special name, which you can use later on to access the entities like: refs.<SEEDING_SET_REF_NAME>.<ENTITY_REF_NAME> (for example: refs.organisations.primary)
• entities: an array of the entities you want to create, each entity exports: refName (optional) and data

Now let's create the users seeding file, and in our current model setup, a user depends on an organisation. We can use refs to refer to an organisation.

test/seeding/users.js

module.exports = [
  refs => ({
    model: () => require('../models/user'),
    refName: 'users',
    entities: [{
      refName: 'primary',
      data: {
        ownedBy: refs.organisations.primary._id,
        name: 'Michael Jackson'
      }
    }]
  })
]

Now let's create test/seeding/index.js, the main file that exports all the seeding files.

NOTE: This file is important because the order that is defined in this file, defines the order of all the seeds to be ran.

test/seeding/index.js

const organisations = require('./organisations')
const users = require('./users')
 
module.exports = [{
  // So first we seed the organisations
  organisations
}, {
  // Then the users, because: users depend on the organisations
  users
}]

Now lets setup the seeding. If you'r using Mocha: create a file that is required in all the tests which defines a global before and after hook

setup.mocha.js

const colonize = require('colonize')
const path = require('path')
const pkg = require('./package')
 
const mongoUrl = 'mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/${pkg.name}-test'
 
const colonization = colonize.initialize({
  mongoUrl,
  seedingPath: path.resolve(__dirname, './test/seeding'),
 
  // Connection whitelist is important, it's a list of allowed connections (this is to double check we're not seeding / dropping a live database)
  connectionWhitelist: [
    mongoUrl
  ]
})
 
before(async () => {
  const { refs, stash } = await colonization.seed()
 
  // Once you set them here, you can use these in your tests to refer to all the created data ;)
  global.stash = stash
  global.refs = refs
})
 
// Don't forget to call `close`
after(async () => {
  await colonization.close()
})

That's it, you're all setup.

Now let's take a look at how you can use this in an example test:

users.test.js

const request = require('supertest')
const expect = require('expect')
 
describe('GET /users/:id', () => {
  it('should correctly return a user', () => {
    // As you can see, this is how you can use refs to refer to seeded entities
    const primaryUserId = global.refs.users.primary._id
 
    return request
      .get(`/users/${primaryUserId`)
      .expect(200)
  })
})