Part 1: Getting started

This part of the book provides a broad, practical introduction to MongoDB. It also introduces the JavaScript shell and the Ruby driver, both of which are used in examples throughout the book.

In chapter 1, we’ll look at MongoDB’s history, design goals, and application use cases. We’ll also see what makes MongoDB unique as we contrast it with other databases emerging in the “NoSQL” space.

In chapter 2, you’ll become conversant in the language of MongoDB’s shell. You’ll learn the basics of MongoDB’s query language, and you’ll practice by creating, querying, updating, and deleting documents. We’ll round out the chapter with some advanced shell tricks and MongoDB commands.

Chapter 3 introduces the MongoDB drivers and MongoDB’s data format, BSON. Here you’ll learn how to talk to the database through the Ruby programming language, and you’ll build a simple application in Ruby demonstrating MongoDB’s flexibility and query power.