How to add binary data with objectId to mongoDB?

Question

I need to insert a document into a collection, which has an ObjectId and a BinData value. Therefore I don't know how to insert it.

With this code I get the error TypeError: Cannot read property 'ObjectId' of undefined.

server/fixtures.js

var ObjectId = Mongo.ObjectID;
var chunk = {
            "_id"     : ObjectId("57a9be3c89c1e4b50c574e3a"),
            "files_id": ObjectId("5113b0062be53b231f9dbc11"),
            "n"       : 0,
            "data"    : BinData(0, "/9j/4AAQSkZJRgA...and...so...on../2Q==")
        };

db.mediafiles.chunks.insert(chunk);

Update

I'm using Meteor

Therefore I can use var ObjectId = Meteor.Collection.ObjectID;. But how do I get the BinData?

ReferenceError: BinData is not defined

Just to be clear before I post my answer, are you using NodeJS (server side JS)? — notionquest, Aug 09 '16 at 13:18

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 27 '20 at 19:27

Stumbled upon this today as well.

As the other answer mentioned you can use ObjectID and Binary provided by the MongoDB driver. The issue I had was that the binary data was not what I expected after inserting and this is due to the inner workings of the Binary function. It requires either an unencoded string or a buffer, which can be initialized from base64 encoded content like this:

const { Binary, ObjectID } = require('mongodb')

async function run() {
  // Configure MongoDB connection
  const client = new MongoClient()

  // Connect to MongoDB
  await client.connect(...)

  try {
    // Insert data using base64 encoded content and 
    // both ObjectID and Binary from mongodb package
    await client.db().mediafiles.chunks.insert({
      _id: ObjectID('57a9be3c89c1e4b50c574e3a'),
      files_id: ObjectID('5113b0062be53b231f9dbc11'),
      n: 0,
      data: Binary(Buffer.from('/9j/4AAQSkZJRgA...and...so...on../2Q==', 'base64')),
    })
  } finally {
    // Close client if it was opened
    await client.close()
  }
}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 09 '16 at 14:00

Here is the NodeJS code to insert data into collection. To answer your question specifically, you need the below statement if you are using NodeJS.

var ObjectId = require('mongodb').ObjectID;

Full NodeJS code (assuming you are using NodeJS):-

var Db = require('mongodb').Db, MongoClient = require('mongodb').MongoClient;
var assert = require('assert');
var ObjectId = require('mongodb').ObjectID;

var bindata = new require('mongodb').Binary("ZzEudm1s");

var insertDocument = function(db, callback) {
    var chunk = {
        "_id" : new ObjectId("535e1b88e421ad3a443742e7"),
        "files_id" : new ObjectId("5113b0062be53b231f9dbc11"),
        "n" : 0,
        "data" : bindata
    };

    db.collection('Day1').insertOne(chunk, function(err, result) {
        assert.equal(err, null);
        console.log("Inserted a document into the collection.");
        callback();
    });
};

MongoClient.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/test', function(err, db) {
    assert.equal(null, err);
    insertDocument(db, function() {
        db.close();
    });
});

If you need a pure JavaScript object of ObjectId, you can use the below library.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/objectid-purejs

For the ObjectID, I found the info, that I can use `Meteor.Collection.ObjectID`. But No I get `ReferenceError: BinData is not defined` — user3142695, Aug 09 '16 at 14:17
doesn't seem right answer. getting error `.Binary` is not a function`. — Adil, Sep 05 '17 at 08:15

How to add binary data with objectId to mongoDB?

2 Answers2

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