Using Liquibase MongoDB Pro with MongoDB Community and Enterprise Server

MongoDB offers several NoSQL database products. This guide describes how to use Liquibase MongoDB Pro with MongoDB Community Server and MongoDB Enterprise Server. You need a Liquibase Pro license key to use it.

This guide does not imply support for third-party clones or emulations of MongoDB. For a tutorial on using Liquibase with Amazon DocumentDB, see Using Liquibase MongoDB Pro with Amazon DocumentDB. This guide also does not describe the community-maintained Liquibase MongoDB extension. For information on that extension, see Contribute Docs: Use Liquibase with MongoDB.

Verified database versions

• 7
• 6
• 5

For more information on Liquibase Pro and MongoDB version requirements, see Verified database versions.

Deprecated versions

MongoDB 4.4.x is deprecated as of February 29, 2024.

Prerequisites

1. Introduction to Liquibase: Dive into Liquibase concepts.
2. Install Liquibase: Download Liquibase on your machine.
3. Ensure Java is installed: Liquibase requires Java to run. If you used the Liquibase Installer, Java is included automatically. Otherwise, you must install Java manually.
4. Get Started with Liquibase: Learn how to use Liquibase with an example database.
5. Design Your Liquibase Project: Create a new Liquibase project folder and organize your changelogs.
6. How to Apply Your Liquibase Pro License Key: If you use Liquibase Pro, activate your license.

Configure MongoDB

1. Ensure that your Configuring User Roles for MongoDB Pro are established before continuing.
2. Download and Install mongosh if it is not already installed on your machine.

Note: mongosh is mandatory to use MongoDB with Liquibase Pro and it must be accessible to Liquibase. We recommend that mongosh is in the system PATH environment variable. If it is not, that location of mongosh must be manually specified in the liquibase.mongosh.conf file.

3. Download Java 11. The MongoDB Pro extension requires it.

Tip: Java 11 may already be present on your machine if you used the installer to install Liquibase. We recommend installing Liquibase with Java 11 with the installer asset available on GitHub.

Install drivers

CLI users

If you currently have the Liquibase MongoDB open-source extension installed, remove it and the associated drivers from your machine.

To use Liquibase and MongoDB, you must download the JAR file that contains the Liquibase MongoDB Pro extension and the JDBC drivers.

To use the Liquibase CLI, place your JAR file(s) in the liquibase/lib directory.

Maven users

To use Liquibase with Maven, you must instead include the driver JAR(s) as a dependency in your pom.xml file. Using this information, Maven automatically downloads the driver JAR from Maven Central when you build your project.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.liquibase.ext</groupId>
    <artifactId>liquibase-commercial-mongodb</artifactId>
    <version>1.3.0</version>
</dependency>

Configure connection

1. Ensure your MongoDB database is configured. See Install MongoDB for more information.

2. Ensure your Liquibase Pro license key is specified. For example, in a liquibase.properties file (defaults file):

   licenseKey: zQl8kNZjZgSp9LvqWQFAtGwiHrpg97UyAfQrNSiJQBCDH8FQPdDzANUpIe4Bj3CZA2IXgDBaoYZFvMw0E/s4JcECB3/A6jO+...

3. Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file (defaults file), along with other properties you want to set a default value for. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard connection format:

url: mongodb://hostname:27017/myDatabase

Note: If you are unsure about how to configure the url property, refer to Connection String URI Format.

Test connection

1. Create a text file called changelog (.js, .xml, .yaml, or .json) in your project directory and add a changeset.

In each changeset, you must specify the mongosh native executor using the runWith attribute:

• Formatted Mongo: runWith:mongosh
• XML: runWith="mongosh"
• YAML: runWith: mongosh
• JSON: "runWith": "mongosh"

Alternatively, you can use native mongosh scripts directly with Liquibase. The MongoDB Pro extension lets you use MongoDB's native language of MongoDB Query Language (MQL), which you may be storing in JavaScript files, in Liquibase changesets and Change Types. This is possible because MongoDB Shell (mongosh) is compatible with Liquibase Pro. For more information, see MongoDB: Write Scripts. Example syntax:db.createCollection('customers');

You can use XML, YAML, or JSON "modeled" changelogs instead of writing plain or Formatted Mongo scripts in JavaScript files. XML, YAML, and JSON changelogs have all the functionality of a Formatted Mongo changelog, like specifying metadata tags and including other changelogs. You must specify mongosh as the value of runWith in each changeset.

In a modeled changelog, you can specify mongosh (MongoDB Query Language) code within the mongo and mongoFile Change Types. Liquibase then implements this in your database. However, the actual MQL you specify is the same as in Formatted Mongo changelogs.

If you want to use the include or includeAll tag in a root changelog, it must be an XML, YAML, or JSON file. The child changelogs you reference can be written in Formatted Mongo, XML, YAML, or JSON.

• Formatted mongosh example
• XML example
• YAML example
• JSON example

With the Liquibase MongoDB Pro extension 1.3.0+, you can use a formatted Mongo changelog for MongoDB Pro, similar to a formatted SQL changelog. This lets you use mongosh scripts written in MongoDB Query Language (MQL) directly in Liquibase.

All Liquibase formatted Mongo changelogs must use the file extension .JS or .js (JavaScript). They must also begin with a changelog header: // liquibase formatted mongodb. Your changesets must each specify runWith:mongosh. For example:

// liquibase formatted mongodb

// changeset your.name:1 labels:example-label context:example-context runWith:mongosh
// comment: example comment

db.createCollection('customers');

// rollback db = db.person.drop()

The Liquibase MongoDB Pro extension uses a unique mongodb-pro XML namespace and XSD files in the changelog header. However, the ext prefix used with other extensions is backwards-compatible:

<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:mongodb-pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-mongodb"
    xmlns:mongodb="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/mongodb"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-mongodb http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-mongodb/liquibase-pro-mongodb-latest.xsd
    http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/mongodb http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/mongodb/liquibase-mongodb-latest.xsd">

    <changeSet id="1" author="your.name" runWith="mongosh">
        <mongodb-pro:mongo dbms="mongodb">
            db.createCollection('person')
        </mongodb-pro:mongo>

        <rollback>
            <mongodb-pro:mongo>
                db.person.drop()
            </mongodb-pro:mongo>
        </rollback>
    </changeSet>

    <changeSet id="2" author="your.name" runWith="mongosh">
        <mongodb-pro:mongoFile dbms="mongodb" path="scriptFile.txt" relativeToChangelogFile="true"/>

        <rollback>
            <mongodb-pro:mongo>
                db.company.drop()
            </mongodb-pro:mongo>
        </rollback>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

databaseChangeLog:
  - changeSet:
      id: 1
      author: your.name
      runWith: mongosh
      changes:
        - mongo:
            mongo: "db.createCollection('person')"
            dbms: mongodb
        - rollback:
            mongo:
              mongo: "db.person.drop()"

  - changeSet:
      id: 2
      author: your.name
      runWith: mongosh
      changes:
        - mongoFile:
            path: "scriptFile.txt"
            dbms: mongodb
            relativeToChangelogFile: "true"
        - rollback:
            mongo:
              mongo: "db.company.drop()"

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "1",
        "author": "your.name",
        "runWith": "mongosh",
        "changes": [
          {
            "mongo": {
              "dbms": "mongodb",
              "mongo": "db.createCollection('person')"
            }
          }
        ],
        "rollback": [
          {
            "mongo": {
              "mongo": "db.person.drop()"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "2",
        "author": "your.name",
        "runWith": "mongosh",
        "changes": [
          {
            "mongoFile": {
              "dbms": "mongodb",
              "path": "scriptFile.txt",
              "relativeToChangelogFile": true
            }
          }
        ],
        "rollback": [
          {
            "mongo": {
              "mongo": "db.company.drop()"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Alternatively, you can specify some Change Type behavior using the MongoDB Liquibase Open Source syntax, which is included in your MongoDB Liquibase Pro installation. These Change Types run corresponding commands in MongoDB. This syntax is only valid for XML, YAML, and JSON changelogs.

For a list of all Pro and OSS MongoDB Change Types and full syntax examples, see Liquibase Change Types for MongoDB.

2. Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:

Note: You can specify arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.

If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this:

4 changesets have not been applied to <your_connection_url>
Liquibase command 'status' was executed successfully.

3. Then execute these changes to your database with the update command:

liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

If your update is successful, Liquibase runs each changeset and displays a summary message ending with:

Liquibase: Update has been successful.
Liquibase command 'update' was executed successfully.

4. From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the myCollection object you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG collection and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK collection.

Tip: You can use MongoDB Compass to easily view collections in your database. For example, run the commands use myDatabase and db.myCollection.find().

Now you're ready to start making deployments with Liquibase!

Related links

• Configuring User Roles for MongoDB Pro
• Using Liquibase MongoDB Pro with Amazon DocumentDB
• Using Liquibase MongoDB Pro with MongoDB Atlas
• Contributor Docs: Open Source MongoDB Extension