Question

Every time I need to get something from MongoDB I’m connecting to it. Is there a way I can connect only once (like a global variable) and use that variable in all the finds and actions?

Thanks

Answer 1

You have pretty much nailed this yourself. My preferred way to do this is to use a method in an initializer or class in the lib directory that initializes a class variable when it is not already set.

The following assumes you are using the standard Ruby driver. I’ve stuck it in a module, but you don’t really need to do this. I’m also selecting the database I wish to use, as I tend to use one per app.

# config/initializers/mongodb_connection.rb
module CachedMongoDBConnection

  def mongodb_connection
    @@cached_mongodb_connection ||= Mongo::Connection.new.db('my_database_name')
  end

end

include CachedMongoDBConnection

Now in your controllers/models etc you can call the mongodb_connection method and work with that.