how to append information to a document in mongo? - php

Question

Background Information
I have the following data in my mongo database:
{ "_id" :
ObjectId("581c97b573df465d63af53ae"),
"ph" : "[phone]",
"fax" : false,
"city" : "abd",
"department" : "",
"description" : "a test"
}
I am now writing a script that will loop through a CSV file that contains data that I need to append to the document. For example, the data might look like this:
[phone], 10:15, 12:15, test#yahoo.com
[phone], 1:00, 9:00, anothertest#yahoo.com
Ultimately I want to end up with a mongo document that looks like this:
{ "_id" :
ObjectId("581c97b573df465d63af53ae"),
"ph" : "[phone]",
"fax" : false,
"city" : "abd",
"department" : "",
"description" : "a test",
"contact_locations": [
{
"stime": "10:15",
"etime": "12:15",
"email": "test#yahoo.com"
},
{
"stime": "1:00",
"etime": "9:00",
"email": "anothertest#yahoo.com"
},
]
}
Problem
The code I've written is actually creating new documents instead of appending to the existing ones. And actually, it's not even creating a new document per row in the CSV file... which I haven't debugged enough yet to really understand why.
Code
For each row in the csv file, I'm running the following logic
while(!$csv->eof() && ($row = $csv->fgetcsv()) && $row[0] !== null) {
//code that massages the $row into the way I need it to look.
$data_to_submit = array('contact_locations' => $row);
echo "proving that the record already exists...: <BR>";
$cursor = $contact_collection->find(array('phnum'=>$row[0]));
var_dump(iterator_to_array($cursor));
echo "now attempting to update it....<BR>";
// $cursor = $contact_collection->update(array('phnum'=>$row[0]), $data_to_submit, array('upsert'=>true));
$cursor = $contact_collection->insert(array('phnum'=>$row[0]), $data_to_submit);
echo "AFTER UPDATE <BR><BR>";
$cursor = $contact_collection->find(array('phnum'=>$row[0]));
var_dump(iterator_to_array($cursor));
}
}
Questions
Is there a way to "append" to documents? Or do I need to grab the existing document, save as an array, merge my contact locations array with the main document and then resave?
how can I query to see if the "contact_locations" object already exists inside a document?

Answer 1

Hi yes you can do it !
1st you need to find your document and push the new value you need :
use findAndModify and $addToSet :
$cursor = $contact_collection->findAndModify(
array("ph" => "[phone]"),
array('$addToSet' =>
array(
"contact_locations" => array(
"stime"=> "10:15",
"etime"=> "12:15",
"email"=> "test#yahoo.com"
)
)
)
);
The best part is $addToSet wont add 2 time the same stuff so you will not have twice the same value :)
Here the docs https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/operator/update/addToSet/

Answer 2

I'm not sure the exact syntax in PHP as I've never done it before but I'm currently doing the same thing in JS with MongoDB and $push is the method you're looking for. Also if I may be a bit nitpicky I recommend changing $contact_collection to $contact_locations as a variable name. Array variable names are usually plural and being more descriptive is always better. Also make sure you find the array in the MongoDB first that you want to append to and that you use the MongoDb "update" command