My Journey with NestJS and MongoDB: A Developer’s Tale

As a developer, I’m always on the lookout for tools that make my life easier and my code better. Recently, I dove into using NestJS with MongoDB — a combination that sounded promising but also a bit intimidating at first. Let me share my experience, from the initial challenges to the rewarding moments when things finally clicked.

Getting Started: Setting Up the Basics

When I first started with NestJS, I was impressed by how organized and modular it is. It’s built on top of Express.js, which I was somewhat familiar with, but NestJS takes things to another level. It’s like moving from a simple toolbox to a fully-equipped workshop. But with great tools comes a learning curve.

My first challenge was setting up the environment. I knew I needed to connect to a database, and MongoDB seemed like the perfect fit for the kind of data I was handling — lots of dynamic, schema-less information. However, making MongoDB play nice with NestJS required a bit of effort.

Integrating MongoDB with NestJS

The key to connecting MongoDB with NestJS is Mongoose, an Object Data Modeling (ODM) library that works wonderfully with MongoDB. But it wasn’t just a matter of installing Mongoose and moving on. I had to learn how to properly set up models and schemas. This part felt a bit overwhelming at first because NestJS is very strict about structure.

Once I figured out how to create schemas and use them to model my data, things started to fall into place. I realized that this strictness was actually a good thing — it kept my code organized and scalable, even as my project grew.

Handling Authentication and Security

Security is always a big concern, so I wanted to make sure my application was secure, especially when handling user data. This led me to implement JWT (JSON Web Token) authentication. I stored my secret key in a .env file to keep it safe and secure.

One thing I learned the hard way was how important it is to hash passwords before saving them to the database. Using bcrypt, I made sure that passwords were never stored in plain text. This added a layer of security to my application that gave me peace of mind.

Encountering and Solving Issues

Of course, not everything went smoothly. I ran into a few issues along the way. For instance, there was a moment when my application kept throwing errors because it couldn’t find certain models. After some digging, I realized I hadn’t properly imported all the necessary modules. It was a simple fix, but it taught me to always double-check my imports and dependencies.

Another challenge was dealing with data relationships in MongoDB. NestJS expects you to be explicit about these relationships, and I had to learn how to properly reference other documents within my schemas. Once I got the hang of it, it became second nature, but it was a bit of a hurdle at first.

The Rewarding Moments

Despite the challenges, there were plenty of rewarding moments. One of the best feelings was when I successfully implemented role-based access control (RBAC). This allowed me to restrict certain actions, like creating posts, to only logged-in users. It was satisfying to see how all the pieces — authentication, role management, and database security — came together.

Another highlight was when I finally saw my data being populated correctly in the MongoDB collections. Seeing the relationships between different documents being handled smoothly felt like a big win.

Conclusion: A Learning Experience

Looking back, my journey with NestJS and MongoDB was full of learning experiences. While there were some bumps along the way, the end result was a well-structured, secure, and scalable application. If you’re a developer considering using NestJS with MongoDB, I’d say go for it — but be prepared to invest some time in learning how everything fits together.

In the end, the time and effort you put into mastering these tools will pay off. Not only will you end up with a robust application, but you’ll also gain a deeper understanding of how to manage complex data and secure your application from potential threats. And that’s a skill set worth having.

repo link: https://github.com/saniaali224/nest-mongodb-auth

#nestjsmongodb #nestwithMongo