ReactiveMongo Support to Play! Framework 2.3

This is a plugin for Play 2.3, enabling support for ReactiveMongo - reactive, asynchronous and non-blocking Scala driver for MongoDB.

If you are looking for a stable version for Play 2.2, please consider using the 0.10.5.0.akka22 version.

Main features

JSON <-> BSON conversion

With Play2-ReactiveMongo, you can use directly the embedded JSON library in Play >= 2.1. There is a specialized collection called JSONCollection that deals naturally with JSValue and JSObject instead of ReactiveMongo's BSONDocument.

The JSON lib has been completely refactored and is now the most powerful one in the Scala world. Thanks to it, you can now fetch documents from MongoDB in the JSON format, transform them by removing and/or adding some properties, and send them to the client. Even better, when a client sends a JSON document, you can validate it and transform it before saving it into a MongoDB collection.

Another advantage to use this plugin is to be capable of using JSON documents for querying MongoDB.

Add ReactiveMongo to your dependencies

In your project/Build.scala:

// only for Play 2.3.x
libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
  "org.reactivemongo" %% "play2-reactivemongo" % "0.10.5.0.akka23"
)

If you are looking for a stable version for Play 2.2, please consider using the 0.10.5.0.akka22 version:

// Only for Play 2.2.x
libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
  "org.reactivemongo" %% "play2-reactivemongo" % "0.10.5.0.akka22"
)

If you want to use the latest snapshot, add the following instead (only for play > 2.3):

resolvers += "Sonatype Snapshots" at "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/"

libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
  "org.reactivemongo" %% "play2-reactivemongo" % "0.11.0-SNAPSHOT"
)

Configure your application to use ReactiveMongo plugin

add to your conf/play.plugins

1100:play.modules.reactivemongo.ReactiveMongoPlugin

Configure your database access within application.conf

This plugin reads connection properties from the application.conf and gives you an easy access to the connected database.

add this to your conf/application.conf

You can use the URI syntax to point to your MongoDB:

mongodb.uri = "mongodb://someuser:somepasswd@localhost:27017/your_db_name"

or, alternatively:

mongodb = {
  db = "your_db_name"
  servers = [ "localhost:27017" ]
  credentials = {
    username = "someuser"
    password = "somepasswd"
  }
}

This is especially helpful on platforms like Heroku, where add-ons publish the connection URI in a single environment variable. The URI syntax supports the following format: mongodb://[username:password@]host1[:port1][,hostN[:portN]]/dbName?option1=value1&option2=value2

A more complete example:

# Either the URI form (preferred)
mongodb.uri = "mongodb://someuser:somepasswd@host1:27017,host2:27017,host3:27017/your_db_name?authSource=authdb&rm.nbChannelsPerNode=10"

# Or, the legacy way:
mongodb = {
  db = "your_db_name"
  servers = [ "host1:27017", "host2:27017", "host3:27017" ]
  options = {
    nbChannelsPerNode = 10
    authSource = "authdb"
  }
  credentials = {
    username = "someuser"
    password = "somepasswd"
  }
}

# If both are present, only the URI form will be parsed.

Configure underlying akka system

ReactiveMongo loads its configuration from the key mongo-async-driver

To change the log level (prevent dead-letter logging for example)

mongo-async-driver {
  akka {
    loglevel = WARNING
  }
}

Play2 controller sample

package controllers

import play.api._
import play.api.mvc._
import play.api.libs.concurrent.Execution.Implicits.defaultContext
import play.api.libs.functional.syntax._
import play.api.libs.json._
import scala.concurrent.Future

// Reactive Mongo imports
import reactivemongo.api._

// Reactive Mongo plugin, including the JSON-specialized collection
import play.modules.reactivemongo.MongoController
import play.modules.reactivemongo.json.collection.JSONCollection

/*
 * Example using ReactiveMongo + Play JSON library.
 *
 * There are two approaches demonstrated in this controller:
 * - using JsObjects directly
 * - using case classes that can be turned into Json using Reads and Writes.
 *
 * This controller uses JsObjects directly.
 *
 * Instead of using the default Collection implementation (which interacts with
 * BSON structures + BSONReader/BSONWriter), we use a specialized
 * implementation that works with JsObject + Reads/Writes.
 *
 * Of course, you can still use the default Collection implementation
 * (BSONCollection.) See ReactiveMongo examples to learn how to use it.
 */
object Application extends Controller with MongoController {
  /*
   * Get a JSONCollection (a Collection implementation that is designed to work
   * with JsObject, Reads and Writes.)
   * Note that the `collection` is not a `val`, but a `def`. We do _not_ store
   * the collection reference to avoid potential problems in development with
   * Play hot-reloading.
   */
  def collection: JSONCollection = db.collection[JSONCollection]("persons")

  def index = Action { Ok("works") }

  def create(name: String, age: Int) = Action.async {
    val json = Json.obj(
      "name" -> name,
      "age" -> age,
      "created" -> new java.util.Date().getTime())

    collection.insert(json).map(lastError =>
      Ok("Mongo LastError: %s".format(lastError)))
  }

  def createFromJson = Action.async(parse.json) { request =>
    import play.api.libs.json.Reads._
    /*
     * request.body is a JsValue.
     * There is an implicit Writes that turns this JsValue as a JsObject,
     * so you can call insert() with this JsValue.
     * (insert() takes a JsObject as parameter, or anything that can be
     * turned into a JsObject using a Writes.)
     */
    val transformer: Reads[JsObject] =
      Reads.jsPickBranch[JsString](__ \ "firstName") and
        Reads.jsPickBranch[JsString](__ \ "lastName") and
        Reads.jsPickBranch[JsNumber](__ \ "age") reduce

    request.body.transform(transformer).map { result =>
      collection.insert(result).map { lastError =>
        Logger.debug(s"Successfully inserted with LastError: $lastError")
        Created
      }
    }.getOrElse(Future.successful(BadRequest("invalid json")))
  }

  def findByName(name: String) = Action.async {
    // let's do our query
    val cursor: Cursor[JsObject] = collection.
      // find all people with name `name`
      find(Json.obj("name" -> name)).
      // sort them by creation date
      sort(Json.obj("created" -> -1)).
      // perform the query and get a cursor of JsObject
      cursor[JsObject]

    // gather all the JsObjects in a list
    val futurePersonsList: Future[List[JsObject]] = cursor.collect[List]()

    // transform the list into a JsArray
    val futurePersonsJsonArray: Future[JsArray] = futurePersonsList.map { persons =>
      Json.arr(persons)
    }

    // everything's ok! Let's reply with the array
    futurePersonsJsonArray.map { persons =>
      Ok(persons)
    }
  }
}

Please Notice:

• your controller may extend MongoController which provides a few helpers
• all actions are asynchronous because ReactiveMongo returns Future[Result]
• we use a specialized collection called JSONCollection that deals naturally with JSValue and JSObject

Play2 controller sample using Json Writes and Reads

First, the models:

package models

case class User(
  age: Int,
  firstName: String,
  lastName: String,
  feeds: List[Feed])

case class Feed(
  name: String,
  url: String)

object JsonFormats {
  import play.api.libs.json.Json
  import play.api.data._
  import play.api.data.Forms._

  // Generates Writes and Reads for Feed and User thanks to Json Macros
  implicit val feedFormat = Json.format[Feed]
  implicit val userFormat = Json.format[User]
}

Then, the controller which uses the ability of the JSONCollection to handle Json's Reads and Writes:

package controllers

import play.api._
import play.api.mvc._
import play.api.libs.concurrent.Execution.Implicits.defaultContext
import play.api.libs.json._
import scala.concurrent.Future

// Reactive Mongo imports
import reactivemongo.api._

// Reactive Mongo plugin, including the JSON-specialized collection
import play.modules.reactivemongo.MongoController
import play.modules.reactivemongo.json.collection.JSONCollection

/*
 * Example using ReactiveMongo + Play JSON library.
 *
 * There are two approaches demonstrated in this controller:
 * - using JsObjects directly
 * - using case classes that can be turned into Json using Reads and Writes.
 *
 * This controller uses case classes and their associated Reads/Writes
 * to read or write JSON structures.
 *
 * Instead of using the default Collection implementation (which interacts with
 * BSON structures + BSONReader/BSONWriter), we use a specialized
 * implementation that works with JsObject + Reads/Writes.
 *
 * Of course, you can still use the default Collection implementation
 * (BSONCollection.) See ReactiveMongo examples to learn how to use it.
 */
object ApplicationUsingJsonReadersWriters extends Controller with MongoController {
  /*
   * Get a JSONCollection (a Collection implementation that is designed to work
   * with JsObject, Reads and Writes.)
   * Note that the `collection` is not a `val`, but a `def`. We do _not_ store
   * the collection reference to avoid potential problems in development with
   * Play hot-reloading.
   */
  def collection: JSONCollection = db.collection[JSONCollection]("persons")

  // ------------------------------------------ //
  // Using case classes + Json Writes and Reads //
  // ------------------------------------------ //
  import play.api.data.Form
  import models._
  import models.JsonFormats._

  def create = Action.async {
    val user = User(29, "John", "Smith", List(
      Feed("Slashdot news", "http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf")))
    // insert the user
    val futureResult = collection.insert(user)
    // when the insert is performed, send a OK 200 result
    futureResult.map(_ => Ok)
  }

  def createFromJson = Action.async(parse.json) { request =>
    /*
     * request.body is a JsValue.
     * There is an implicit Writes that turns this JsValue as a JsObject,
     * so you can call insert() with this JsValue.
     * (insert() takes a JsObject as parameter, or anything that can be
     * turned into a JsObject using a Writes.)
     */
    request.body.validate[User].map { user =>
      // `user` is an instance of the case class `models.User`
      collection.insert(user).map { lastError =>
        Logger.debug(s"Successfully inserted with LastError: $lastError")
        Created
      }
    }.getOrElse(Future.successful(BadRequest("invalid json")))
  }

  def findByName(lastName: String) = Action.async {
    // let's do our query
    val cursor: Cursor[User] = collection.
      // find all people with name `name`
      find(Json.obj("lastName" -> lastName)).
      // sort them by creation date
      sort(Json.obj("created" -> -1)).
      // perform the query and get a cursor of JsObject
      cursor[User]

    // gather all the JsObjects in a list
    val futureUsersList: Future[List[User]] = cursor.collect[List]()

    // everything's ok! Let's reply with the array
    futureUsersList.map { persons =>
      Ok(persons.toString)
    }
  }
}

Helpers for GridFS

Play2-ReactiveMongo makes it easy to serve and store files in a complete non-blocking manner. It provides a body parser for handling file uploads, and a method to serve files from a GridFS store.

def upload = Action(gridFSBodyParser(gridFS)) { request =>
  // here is the future file!
  val futureFile: Future[ReadFile[BSONValue]] = request.body.files.head.ref
  futureFile.map { file =>
    // do something
    Ok
  }.recover {
    case e: Throwable => InternalServerError(e.getMessage)
  }
}