Executing MongoDB find queries in PHP - php

Question

I'm in a situation where I need to be able to run a direct mongodb query from inside of PHP, and am having troubles with the execute() function.
The following code will correctly execute and return a result from the database:
$m = new MongoClient();
$db = $m-><dbName>;
print_r($db->execute('db.<collection>.count()'));
However, if I replace count() with find() I get the following result:
Array
(
[retval] => Array
(
[value] => DBQuery: <dbName>.<collection>-> undefined
)
[ok] => 1
)
Why does one of these queries work, and the other fail? And how can I overcome this issue? I've thought about writing something that will convert a MongoDB query into the necessary array format for the PHP Mongo library to work with, but that would be a lot of work that I don't want to go through.
This is the same problem that was brought up here: How to access MongoDB profile in PHP? - but no answers were given at that time.
This question: PHP MongoDB execute() locking collection utilizes the execute() method with find() and they say it works for them, but I'm not sure how.
Update:
So I'd updated mongo in pecl, but that didn't solve anything. However, I also did a YUM update, and that provided a separate package update for php-pecl-mongo-1.2.12-1.el6.x86_64 that brought me to 1.3.4-1.
Now, $db->execute('db.<collection>.find()) returns something...but not at all what I expect. Instead of returning a MongoCursor object instead an Array is returned, and while it has a retval field, there's no actual information in there from the query performed. It looks like this:
Array
(
[retval] => Array
(
[_mongo] => Array
(
[slaveOk] =>
[host] => EMBEDDED
)
[_db] => Array
(
[_mongo] => Array
(
[slaveOk] =>
[host] => EMBEDDED
)
[_name] => test
)
[_collection] => Array
(
[_mongo] => Array
(
[slaveOk] =>
[host] => EMBEDDED
)
[_db] => Array
(
[_mongo] => Array
(
[slaveOk] =>
[host] => EMBEDDED
)
[_name] => test
)
[_shortName] => hits
[_fullName] => test.hits
)
[_ns] => test.hits
[_query] => Array
(
)
[_fields] =>
[_limit] => 0
[_skip] => 0
[_batchSize] => 0
[_options] => 0
[_cursor] =>
[_numReturned] => 0
[_special] =>
)
[ok] => 1
)
As you can see, there's not actually anything from the database there: how do I get to my actual rows?

Answer 1

$m = new MongoClient();
$db = $m-><dbName>;
print_r($db->execute('db.<collection>.toArray()'));
Suppose your databse name is test and collection name is foo .
print_r($m->test->execute('return db.foo.find().toArray()'));

Answer 2

I had the same problem, this is my solution using execute:
$m = new MongoClient();
$db = $m-><dbName>;
print_r($db->execute('return { count : db.<collection>.count() }'));
My result:
Array
(
[retval] => Array
(
[count] => 10
)
[ok] => 1
)