JavaScript Object vs minimongo efficiency - javascript

My Meteor client receives data from the server and stores it in minimongo. This data is guaranteed not to change during their session, so I don't need Meteor's reactivity. The static data just happens to arrive by that route; let's just take that as a given.
The data looks like this:
{_id: 'abc...', val: {...}}
On the client, is it more efficient for me to look up values using:
val_I_need = Collection.findOne({id})
or to create a JavaScript object:
data = {}
Collection.find().fetch().map((x) => {data[x._id] = x.val})
and use it for look ups:
val_I_need = data[id]
Is there a tipping point, either in terms of the size of the data or the number of look ups, where the more efficient method changes, or outweighs the initial cost of building the object?

FindOne may be more efficient on larger datasets because it looks up using cursors where _id is an indexed key while your find().fetch() approach requires to get all docs and then iterate manually by mapping.
Note, that findOne could also be replaced by .find({_id:desiredId}).fetch()[0](assuming it returns the desired doc).
More on this in the mongo documentation on query performance.
However, if it concerns only one object that is afterwards not reactively tracked, I would rather load it via a "findOne"-returning method from the server:
export const getOne = new ValidatedMethod({
name: "getOne",
validate(query) {
// validate query schema
// ...
},
run(query) {
// CHECK PERMISSIONS
// ...
return MyCollection.findOne(query);
});
This avoids using publications / subscriptions and thus minimongo for this collection on the current client template. Think about that pub/sub has already some reactivity initialized to observe the collection and thus eats up some computation somewhere.

My gut feeling is that you'll never hit a point where the performance gain of putting it in an object makes a noticeable difference.
It's more likely that your bottleneck will be in the pub/sub mechanism, as it can take a while to send all documents to the client.
You'll see a much more noticeable difference for a large dataset by retrieving the data using a Meteor method.
At which point you've got it in a plain old javascript object anyway and so end up with the small performance gain of native object lookups as well.

Related

Firebase realtime database don't retrieve specified child

I have db structure like this:
datas
-data1
--name
--city
--date
--logs
---log1
---log2
---log3
-data2
--name
...
Now, I released putting 'logs' inside 'data' parent was a huge mistake because its user generated child and growing up fast (so much data under it) and causes delay on downloading 'data1' parent naturally.
Normally I am pulling 'data1' with this:
database().ref('datas/' + this.state.dataID).on('value', function(snapshot) {
... })
I hope i could explain my problem, I just basically ignore 'logs' child (I need name,city,date)
As there project started and users already using this, I need a proper way.
Is there a way to do this on firebase side ?
I don't think you'll have an easy way out of this one...
Queries are deep by default: they always return the entire subtree.
https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/rtdb-vs-firestore#querying
I can see only two options:
Migrate the logs to a different location (if it's really a huge amount of data, you could use something like BiqQuery https://cloud.google.com/bigquery or if it's events, you could store them in Google Analytics, it really depends on the volume and type of logs)
Attach multiple listeners instead of a single one (depending on the amount of entries that might be a viable interim solution):
let response={
name:null,
city:null,
date:null
}
const refs = ['name', 'city', 'date'].map(key=>database().ref(`datas/${this.state.dataID}/${key}')
refs.forEach(ref=>ref.on('value',snapshot=>{
})

Using the .find().fetch() from within a function in Meteor

I am making a project with Meteor and I'm having some issues trying to get data out of mongodb in JavaScript. I have the following in a function:
console.log(Time.find({today: "Saturday"}).fetch());
In my publish.js file on the server side I have the following:
Meteor.publish("time", function () {
var currentUserId = this.userId;
return Time.find({user: currentUserId});
});
And In my subscriptions file I have the following:
Meteor.subscribe("time");
This function gets called later down in the code but it returns an empty array. If I run this code in my browsers console it returns an array with 2 objects in it, which is correct. This leads me wondering if I can use the .fetch() function from within my code? As if I leave off the .fetch() it returns what looks like the usual giant object. My real problem is I need the data in the form that .fetch() gives it to me in. I think it's because the function gets triggered before the data gets a chance to load in, as if I switch out the .fetch() for a .count() it returns 0.
Is there any way around this or a fix?
Where are you you running that console.log?
There are a couple fundementals here that I believe you may have glossed over.
1 Pub / Sub
This is how we get data from the server, when we subscribe to a publication i becomes active and begins to send data, this is neither instant or synchronous, (think of it more like turning on a hose pipe), so when you run your console.log, you may not yet have the data on the client.
2 Reactive contexts
One of the fundamental aspects to building anything in meteor is its reactivity. and it helps to start thinking in terms of reactive and non reactive contexts. A reactive context is one that re-runs each time the data it depends on changes. Using an autorun (Tracker.autorun or this.autorun insdie a template lifecycle callback) or a template helper are good examples. By placing it in a template helper it will re-run when the data is available.
Template.Whatever.helpers({
items: function() {
// ...do your find here.....
}
});
As items is a reactive context, depending on the collection data, it re-run when that changes, giving you access to the data when the client has them.
3 Retrieving Non Reactive Data
Alternatively it is also possible to retrieve data non-reactively by using Meteor.call with a meteor method, and then doing something with the result, in the callback to the Meteor.call. Depending on what you're doing, Meteor.wrapAsync may also be your friend here.
a simple example (out of my head, untested) :
// on the server
Meteor.methods({
gimmeStuff: function() {
return "here is your stuff kind sir!";
}
});
// on the client
Meteor.call('gimmeStuff', function(err, result) {
if (err || !result) {
console.log("there was an error or no result!");
return false;
}
console.log(result);
return result;
});
4 Its Unlikely that you actually need ithe .fetch()
If you're working with this in a template, you don't need a fetch.
If you want this to be non-reactive you don't need a fetch
As one of the commenters mentioned, a cursor is just a wrapper around that array, giving you convenient methods, and reactivity.
5 Go Back to the Begining
If you haven't already, I would highly recommend working through the tutorial on the meteor site carefully and thoroughly, as it covers all of the essentials you'll need to solve far more challenging problems than this, as well as, by way of example, teach you all of the fundamental mechanics to build great apps with Meteor.

Best(?) practice for loading & saving relational data in Polymer

What is the best, or just a good, practice for loading and saving relational data in Polymer elements' published properties?
I've used https://github.com/PaulUithol/Backbone-relational to load and save relational data. It depends on Backbone. But now with Polymer's use of Object.observe(), I mostly don't need Backbone's complex model objects (at least I don't need their get() and set() methods), but I can't figure out how I can best get rid of Backbone's complex model objects and just use plain JavaScript objects AND load and save relational data to my data store.
Is there a Polymer-compatible library/web component out there which already implements this? Or a native way to do it?
Here are a couple ways I could do it myself without a library, but I expect I'm missing lots of edge cases.
Load relational data:
// Load from server
model = store.get('model-id');
// model == {'id':'abc', 'name':'Parent', child_ids:['child-id1', 'child-id2']}
for (child_id in model.child_ids){
model.children[child_id] = store.get(child_id);
}
// Use model in Polymer element's published property here
Save relational data:
// Get model from Polymer published property here
model.child_ids = [];
for (child in model.children){
model.child_ids.push(child.id);
}
delete model.children;
store.set(JSON.stringify(model));
// or just store.set(model);

Nodejs + mongodb : How to query $ref fields?

I'am using MongoDB with a nodejs REST service which exposes my data stored inside. I have a question about how to interrogate my data which uses $ref.
Here is a sample of an Object which contains a reference to another object (detail) in anther collection :
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5962c7b53b6a02100a000085"),
"Title" : "test",
"detail" : {
"$ref" : "ObjDetail",
"$id" : ObjectId("5270c7b11f6a02100a000001")
},
"foo" : bar
}
Actually, using Node.js and mongodb module, I do the following :
db.collection("Obj").findOne({"_id" : new ObjectID("5962c7b53b6a02100a000085"},
function(err, item) {
db.collection(item.$ref).findOne({"_id" : item.$id}, function(err,subItem){
...
});
});
In fact I make 2 queries, and get 2 objects. It's a kind of "lazy loading" (not exactly but almost)
My question is simple : is it possible to retrieve the whole object graph in one query ?
Thank you
No, you can't.
To resolve DBRefs, your application must perform additional queries to return the referenced documents. Many drivers have helper methods that form the query for the DBRef automatically. The drivers do not automatically resolve DBRefs into documents.
From the MongoDB docs http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/database-references/.
Is it possible to fetch parent object along with it's $ref using single MongoDB query?
No, it's not possible.
Mongo have no inner support for refs, so it up to your application to populate them (see Brett's answer).
But is it possible to fetch parent object with all its ref's with a single node.js command?
Yes, it's possible. You can do it with Mongoose. It has build-in ref's population support. You'll need to change your data model a little bit to make it work, but it's pretty much what you're looking for. Of course, to do so Mongoose will make the same two MongoDB queries that you did.
Answer of Vladimir is not still valid as the db.dereference method was deleted from MongoDB Nodejs API:
https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/introducing-nodejs-mongodb-20-driver
The db instance object has been simplified. We've removed the following methods:
db.dereference due to db references being deprecated in the server
No, very few drivers for MongoDb include special support for a DBRef. There are two reasons:
MongoDb doesn't have any special commands to make retrieval of referenced documents possible. So, drivers that do add support are artificially populating the resulting objects.
The more, "bare metal" the API, the less it makes sense. In fact, as. MongoDb collections are schema-less, if the NodeJs driver brought back the primary document with all references realized, if the code then saved the document without breaking the references, it would result in an embedded subdocument. Of course, that would be a mess.
Unless your field values vary, I wouldn't bother with a DBRef type and would instead just store the ObjectId directly. As you can see, a DBRef really offers no benefit except to require lots of duplicate disk space for each reference, as a richer object must stored along with its type information. Either way, you should consider the potentially unnecessary overhead of storing a string containing the referenced collection's documents.
Many developers and MongoDb, Inc. have added an object document mapping layer on top of the existing base drivers. One popular option for MongoDb and Nodejs is Mongoose. As the MongoDb server has no real awareness of referenced documents, the responsibility of the references moves to the client. As it's more common to consistently reference a particular collection from a given document, Mongoose makes it possible to define the reference as a Schema. Mongoose is not schema-less.
If you accept having and using a Schema is useful, then Mongoose is definitely worth looking at. It can efficiently fetch a batch of related documents (from a single collection) from a set of documents. It always is using the native driver, but it generally does operations extremely efficiently and takes some of the drudgery out of more complex application architectures.
I would strongly suggest you have a look at the populate method (here) to see what it's capable of doing.
Demo /* Demo would be a Mongoose Model that you've defined */
.findById(theObjectId)
.populate('detail')
.exec(function (err, doc) {
if (err) return handleError(err);
// do something with the single doc that was returned
})
If instead of findById, which always returns a single document, find were used, with populate, all returned documents' details property will be populated automatically. It's smart too that it would request the same referenced documents multiple times.
If you don't use Mongoose, I'd suggest you consider a caching layer to avoid doing client side reference joins when possible and use the $in query operator to batch as much as possible.
I reach the desired result with next example:
collection.find({}, function (err, cursor) {
cursor.toArray(function (err, docs) {
var count = docs.length - 1;
for (i in docs) {
(function (docs, i) {
db.dereference(docs[i].ref, function(err, doc) {
docs[i].ref = doc;
if (i == count) {
(function (docs) {
console.log(docs);
})(docs);
}
});
})(docs, i)
}
});
});
Not sure that it solution is best of the best, but It is simplest solution that i found.

avoiding persistence on Collection in Meteor

I've just started to look into using Meteor for an upcoming project, and have a question about data persistence. It sounds like you have two options: First, you can declare a "name" when instantiating a new Collection which will create a database collection which will be saved upon alteration.
Chatrooms = new Meteor.Collection("chatrooms");
The other option is to create an anonymous collection, which won't be saved.
Chatrooms = new Meteor.Collection();
But what do I do if I want to populate a Collection from the database, but not save it upon alteration on the client-side? For instance, I might want to create a collection of user Movies that will be displayed in a grid -- each having their own absolute positioning based upon the sorting and filtering applied to the collection. Upon changes to the collection, the associated views (or templates) will be re-rendered to reflect those changes. But I don't necessarily want these absolute positions to be stored in a database...
Any ideas?
I'm not very clear about your question. But perhaps, you can bind the absolute position into the collection data? They are just normal javascript objects. And the collection data will only be changed through insert/update/remove function call.
I ended up doing something like this:
movies: function() {
var movies = Movies.find().fetch();
_.each(movies, function(movie, index){
movie.left = index * 2;
movie.top = index * 2;
});
return movies;
},
Basically, 'fetch()' allows me to deal with pure JSON objects, making it easier to iterate through them and alter them without performing 'update' commands.

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