Cannot get Accounts-Base package to point to the correct database

Question

I have a Meteor app. that uses a database different form the default 'meteor' one:

var database = new MongoInternals.RemoteCollectionDriver("mongodb://127.0.0.1:3001/my-db");

However, every time I register a new user, using the Accouts-Base package, it keeps adding the new user record to the Users collection in the 'meteor' database. Is there any way to use this package with an alternate database?

P.s. I am in development environment if that makes any difference.

Answer 1

Looking directly at the code for the accounts-base package (Meteor v 1.0.4), it looks like they do not officially support a way to set the database for the users collection. As you can see from the code, the server always connects using the default Meteor.connection:

Meteor.users = new Mongo.Collection("users", { // line 141
  _preventAutopublish: true,
  connection: Meteor.isClient ? Accounts.connection : Meteor.connection
});

The Accounts.connection is set above, but it is explicitly not supported:

// ~ line 118
if (Meteor.isClient
....
if (typeof __meteor_runtime_config__ !== "undefined" &&
  __meteor_runtime_config__.ACCOUNTS_CONNECTION_URL) { 
    // Temporary, internal hook to allow the server to point the client
    // to a different authentication server. This is for a very
    // particular use case that comes up when implementing a oauth
    // server. Unsupported and may go away at any point in time.
    //
    // We will eventually provide a general way to use account-base
    // against any DDP connection, not just one special one.
    Accounts.connection = DDP.connect(
      __meteor_runtime_config__.ACCOUNTS_CONNECTION_URL)
  }
}

However, I was able to get it to use my database by setting the $MONGO_URL environment variable (which I believe sets the default connection, which gets used by the accounts package):

In one terminal window, I started mongo on port 27017

> mongod

In another window, I set the MONGO_URL and added the appropriate packages, then started meteor:

> export MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/test
> meteor add accounts-base
> meteor add accounts-password
> meteor

And finally in my browser console I created an account:

> Accounts.createUser({username: 'me', password: 'guest'});

Then I connected to test database in my mongo instance:

> mongo
  MongoDB shell version: 3.0.1
  connecting to: test
> db.users.find()
  { "_id" : "L3EDrS8FnRymDLhPp", ... "username" : "me" }

In short, I think you have three not-super-great options:

• Use the MONGO_URL environment variable (probably best option)
• Hack the accounts-base package to do what you want
• Try out the unsupported ACCOUNTS_CONNECTION_URL variable, which may 'go away at any point in time'