Insert JSON into MongoDb directly from PHP - php

Question

I have an Android application which sends json data to PHP script.
The PHP script have to save the data into MongoDB.
When I insert the data, MongoDB treat this data as a string.
$conn = new Mongo('mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017');
// access database
$db = $conn->Data;
// access collection
$collection = $db->Collection;
$collection->insert($myjson)
How can I say to MongoDB PHP driver that it is already a json document?
Thanks

Answer 1

The PHP MongDB Driver accepts arrays for inserts and queries (see here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/mongo.queries.php)
So you need to convert your JSON to an array.
Luckily, in general this is quite easy ... here is a snippet from a longer piece of code (see this article) to insert JSON data from the Twitter API into an array, then into MongoDB:
// Convert JSON to a PHP array
$usertimeline = json_decode($usertimeline);
// Loop array and create seperate documents for each tweet
foreach ($usertimeline as $id => $item) {
$collection->insert($item);
}
Note the json_decode() function can convert to an array by passing true as the second parameter.

Answer 2

Here's a tip for others who want to do this, but want to update records rather than insert new ones. In order to get Justin's approach to work, I had to make sure that I convert the _id object for each item to a MongoId:
// Convert JSON to a PHP array
$usertimeline = json_decode($usertimeline);
// Loop array and create seperate documents for each tweet
foreach ($usertimeline as $id => $item) {
$mongo_id = new MongoId($id);
$item->_id = $mongo_id;
$collection->update(array('_id' => $mongo_id), $item);
}

Answer 3

MongoDB uses BSON not JSON so you need to re-encode anyways. Also, I remember talking to kchodorow about this and the raw interface was not exposed then (been half a year at least) and I doubt it is now so even if you manage to get BSON data from somewhere , you can't avoid the de/encode.

Answer 4

As MongoDB PHP library supports conversion from JSON to BSON and BSON to PHP Std Class Object, You can follow simple steps.
//Convert Row (Document) to json
$json_row = json_encode($row);
//Convert JSON to BSON
$bson = \MongoDB\BSON\fromJSON($json_row);
//Convert BSON to PHP Std Class object
$row = \MongoDB\BSON\toPHP($bson);
// Insert Record to Document
$collection->insertOne($row);
You can get full MongoDB database backup and restore script from here
https://github.com/sulochanatutorials/php-mongodb-backup-restore

Answer 5

UPDATE 2021 WITH PHP 7 DRIVER:
Lets say your json string is
$myjson = {"name":"foo", "age":30}
First decode it with PHP json_decode. Which returns an array.
$myarraydata = json_decode($myjson)
Now you can directly insert it into mongoDB
$bulk = new MongoDB\Driver\BulkWrite(['ordered' => true]);
$bulk->insert($myarraydata);
$writeConcern = new MongoDB\Driver\WriteConcern(MongoDB\Driver\WriteConcern::MAJORITY, 1000);
$result = $connection->executeBulkWrite('dbname.collection_name', $bulk, $writeConcern);
Check bulk operation official documentation here.