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Question

How to set up mongodb Managed Database (with cert) with App Platform

Hello,

I am currently using app platform with mongodb managed database and I am facing issues while trying to connect on the database from my nodejs component linked to the mongodb managed database.

The issue come from the certificate : I can’t upload it on the app platform component so I need to use the ‘CA_CERT’ database env variable (https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/how-to/use-environment-variables/)

While doing this, I am facing a new issue : the env variable is displaying the whole certificate in a bad format (not even a path) and I need to clean it right after and I am literally doing :

// cert formatter which looks really ugly
const cert = env('CA_CERT').replaceAll(' ', '\n').replace('BEGIN\n', 'BEGIN ').replace('END\n', 'END ');

mongoose.connect(url, {
    useNewUrlParser: true,
    useUnifiedTopology: true,
    sslCA: cert
});

with ssl=true instead of tls=true in mongo url.

I am looking for a better solution or an explanation about how should I use the app platform with mongodb managed database which is not shown on docs (https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/mongodb/how-to/connect/).

Also, I appreciate these kind of articles (https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tech_talks/making-a-node-mongodb-app-on-digitalocean) but it is only for a local purpose and with the cert locally downloaded.

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Sri Charan Madhavapeddi • July 20, 2021

Hello @aellanglet ,

To begin with, the env variable added is using the direct value instead we recommend you to use the bindable variable. You can update the env variable as follows:

KEYS: DATABASE_HOST
VALUES: ${mymongodb.HOSTNAME}

KEYS: DATABASE_PORT
VALUES: ${mymongodb.PORT}

KEYS: DATABASE_NAME
VALUES: ${mymongodb.DATABASE}

KEYS: DATABASE_USERNAME
VALUES: ${mymongodb.USERNAME}

KEYS: DATABASE_PASSWORD
VALUES: ${mymongodb.PASSWORD}

KEYS: MONGODB_URL
VALUES: ${mymongodb.DATABASE_URL}

You can add the following env variable to pass the SSL CA certificate:

KEYS: MONGODB_CERT_PATH
VALUES: ${mymongodb.CA_CERT}

Regarding the code, I see you are not passing the SSL CA certificate so the database connection is failing for some reason. I would recommend you to update it as follows and check the connection:

module.exports = ({ env }) => ({
  defaultConnection: 'default',
  connections: {
    default: {
      connector: 'mongoose',
      settings: {
        uri: env('DATABASE_URI'),
        srv: env.bool('DATABASE_SRV', true),
        port: env.int('DATABASE_PORT', 27017),
        database: env('DATABASE_NAME'),
      },
      options: {
        authenticationDatabase: env('AUTHENTICATION_DATABASE', null),
        ssl: env.bool('DATABASE_SSL', true),
        sslCA: env('CA_CERT'),
      },
    },
  },
})

Hope this helps! Regarding the documentation, I shall pass this to our team internally.

Cheers, Sri Charan

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