MongoDB Support

Table of Contents

# Overview

MongoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL document-oriented database, used for its high write load (useful for analytics or IoT) and high availability (easy to set replica sets with automatic failover). It can also shard the database easily for horizontal scalability and has a powerful query language for doing aggregation, text search or geospatial queries.

API Platform uses Doctrine MongoDB ODM 2 and in particular its aggregation builder to leverage all the possibilities of the database.

Doctrine MongoDB ODM 2 relies on the mongodb PHP extension and not on the legacy mongo extension.

If the mongodb PHP extension is not installed yet, install it beforehand .

If you are using the API Platform Distribution , modify the Dockerfile to add the extension:

# api/Dockerfile
  pecl install \
   apcu-${APCU_VERSION} \
+  mongodb \
  pecl clear-cache; \
  docker-php-ext-enable \
   apcu \
+  mongodb \
   opcache \

Then rebuild the php image:

docker compose build php

Add a MongoDB image to the docker-compose file:

# compose.yaml
services:
  # ...
  db-mongodb:
      # In production, you may want to use a managed database service
      image: mongo
      environment:
          - MONGO_INITDB_DATABASE=api
          - MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME=api-platform
          # You should definitely change the password in production
          - MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD=!ChangeMe!
      volumes:
          - db-data:/data/db:rw
          # You may use a bind-mounted host directory instead, so that it is harder to accidentally remove the volume and lose all your data!
          # - ./docker/db/data:/data/db:rw
      ports:
          - "27017:27017"
# ...

Once the extension is installed, to enable the MongoDB support, require the Doctrine MongoDB ODM bundle package using Composer:

docker compose exec php \
    composer require doctrine/mongodb-odm-bundle

Execute the contrib recipe to have it already configured.

Change the MongoDB environment variables to match your Docker image:

# api/.env
MONGODB_URL=mongodb://api-platform:!ChangeMe!@db-mongodb
MONGODB_DB=api

Change the configuration of API Platform to add the right mapping path:

# api/config/packages/api_platform.yaml
api_platform:
    # ...
    mapping:
        paths: ['%kernel.project_dir%/src/Entity', '%kernel.project_dir%/src/Document']
    # ...
Creating Documents

Creating resources mapped to MongoDB documents is as simple as creating entities:

<?php
// api/src/Document/Product.php
namespace App\Document;
use ApiPlatform\Metadata\ApiResource;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ODM\MongoDB\Mapping\Annotations as ODM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
 * @ODM\Document
#[ApiResource]
class Product
     * @ODM\Id(strategy="INCREMENT", type="int")
    private $id;
     * @ODM\Field
    #[Assert\NotBlank]
    public $name;
     * @ODM\ReferenceMany(targetDocument=Offer::class, mappedBy="product", cascade={"persist"}, storeAs="id")
    public $offers;
    public function __construct()
        $this->offers = new ArrayCollection();
    public function getId(): ?int
        return $this->id;
    public function addOffer(Offer $offer): void
        $offer->product = $this;
        $this->offers->add($offer);
    public function removeOffer(Offer $offer): void
        $offer->product = null;
        $this->offers->removeElement($offer);
    // ...

<?php
// api/src/Document/Offer.php
namespace App\Document;
use ApiPlatform\Metadata\ApiResource;
use Doctrine\ODM\MongoDB\Mapping\Annotations as ODM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
 * @ODM\Document
#[ApiResource(types: ['https://schema.org/Offer'])]
class Offer
     * @ODM\Id(strategy="INCREMENT", type="int")
    private $id;
     * @ODM\Field
    public $description;
     * @ODM\Field(type="float")
     * @Assert\NotBlank
     * @Assert\Range(min=0, minMessage="The price must be superior to 0.")
     * @Assert\Type(type="float")
    public $price;
     * @ODM\ReferenceOne(targetDocument=Product::class, inversedBy="offers", storeAs="id")
    public $product;
    public function getId(): ?int
        return $this->id;

When defining references, always use the ID for storing them instead of the native DBRef . It allows API Platform to manage filtering on nested properties by using lookups .

Doctrine MongoDB ODM filters are practically the same as Doctrine ORM filters.

See how to use them and how to create custom ones in the filters documentation .

See how to create Doctrine MongoDB ODM custom extensions in the extensions documentation .

If you want to add some command options when executing an aggregate query (see the related documentation in MongoDB manual ), you can do it in your resource configuration, at the operation or the resource level.

For instance at the operation level:

<?php
// api/src/Document/Offer.php
namespace App\Document;
use ApiPlatform\Metadata\ApiResource;
use ApiPlatform\Metadata\GetCollection;
use Doctrine\ODM\MongoDB\Mapping\Annotations as ODM;
 * @ODM\Document
#[ApiResource]
#[GetCollection(extraProperties: ['doctrineMongodb' => ['execute_options' => ['allowDiskUse' => true]]])]
class Offer
    // ...

Or at the resource level:

<?php
// api/src/Document/Offer.php
namespace App\Document;
use ApiPlatform\Metadata\ApiResource;
use Doctrine\ODM\MongoDB\Mapping\Annotations as ODM;
 * @ODM\Document