A web-based admin interface for MongoDB or compatible services (FerretDB, Amazon DocumentDB). Built with Node.js, Express, and Bootstrap 5.

• Connect to multiple databases
• View/add/delete databases
• View/add/rename/delete collections
• View/add/update/delete documents
• Preview audio/video/image assets inline in the collection view
• Nested and/or large objects are collapsible for easy overview
• Async on-demand loading of big document properties (>100KB default) to keep collection view fast
• GridFS support - add/get/delete incredibly large files
• Use BSON data types in documents
• Mobile / Responsive - Bootstrap 5 works passably on small screens when you're in a bind
• Connect and authenticate to individual databases
• Authenticate as admin to view all databases
• Database blacklist/whitelist
• Custom CA/TLS/SSL and CA validation disabling
• Supports replica sets
• OpenIdConnect Authentication

Home Page	Database View	Collection View	Editing A Document

These screenshots are from version 0.30.40 View the album for more screenshots: (server status, database views, etc..) https://imgur.com/a/9vHsF

To test or develop with the latest version (master branch) you can install using this git repository:

npm i mongo-express@github:mongo-express/mongo-express
OR
yarn add mongo-express@github:mongo-express/mongo-express
OR
pnpm add mongo-express@github:mongo-express/mongo-express

Copy config.default.js to config.js and edit the default property to fit your local environment

Run the development build using:

npm run start-dev
OR
yarn start-dev
OR
pnpm run start-dev

mongo-express requires Node.js v22 or higher.

To install:

npm i -g mongo-express
OR
yarn add -g mongo-express
OR
pnpm add -g mongo-express

Or if you want to install a non-global copy:

npm i mongo-express
OR
yarn add mongo-express
OR
pnpm add mongo-express

By default config.default.js is used where the basic access authentication is admin:pass. This is obviously not safe, and there are warnings in the console.

To configure:

Copy YOUR_PATH/node_modules/mongo-express/config.default.js into a new file called YOUR_PATH/node_modules/mongo-express/config.js.

Note: YOUR_PATH will depend on your current OS user and system configuration. You can see it in the output text shown after executing npm install.

Fill in your MongoDB connection details and any other options you want to change in config.js.

You will also need to create a .env file with the variables for your cookie and session secrets. Replace these values with randomly generated secrets:

ME_CONFIG_SITE_COOKIESECRET: 'yourcookiesecret',
ME_CONFIG_SITE_SESSIONSECRET: 'yoursessionsecret',

To run:

cd YOUR_PATH/node_modules/mongo-express/ && node app.js

or if you installed it globally, you can immediately start mongo-express like this:

mongo-express

You can add some configuration options. Example:

node app.js --url mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017

or:

mongo-express --URL mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017

Configuration options:

To mount as Express middleware (see node_modules/mongo-express/app.js):

var mongo_express = require('mongo-express/lib/middleware')
var mongo_express_config = require('./mongo_express_config')

app.use('/mongo_express', mongo_express(mongo_express_config))

Make sure you have a running MongoDB container on the same Docker network (--network some-network below). The Docker image defaults to mongodb://mongo:27017, so the MongoDB container must be reachable from the mongo-express container as mongo — start it with --name mongo or --network-alias mongo — unless you set ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_URL to a different hostname.

If MongoDB was initialized with MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME and MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD, include those credentials in ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_URL and authenticate against the admin database, for example mongodb://root:password@mongo:27017/?authSource=admin. ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_USERNAME and ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_PASSWORD only control the mongo-express web login; they are not used to authenticate to MongoDB.

Use the Docker Hub image:

$ docker run -it --rm -p 8081:8081 --network some-network mongo-express

Build from source:

Build an image from the project directory, then run the image.

$ docker build -t mongo-express .
$ docker run -it --rm -p 8081:8081 --network some-network mongo-express

Building with OIDC support:

To enable OIDC (OpenID Connect) authentication support in the Docker image, use the ENABLE_OIDC build argument:

$ docker build -t mongo-express --build-arg ENABLE_OIDC=true .
$ docker run -it --rm -p 8081:8081 --network some-network mongo-express

When ENABLE_OIDC=true is set, the express-openid-connect package will be installed during the build process, enabling OIDC authentication features.

You can use the following environment variables to modify the container's configuration:

Example:

docker run -it --rm \
    --name mongo-express \
    --network web_default \
    -p 8081:8081 \
    -e ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_ENABLED="true" \
    -e ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_USERNAME="mongo-express-user" \
    -e ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_PASSWORD="fairly-long-password" \
    -e ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_URL="mongodb://root:password@some-mongo:27017/?authSource=admin" \
    mongo-express

This example connects to a MongoDB container reachable as some-mongo on the Docker network and enables basic authentication in the mongo-express UI.

To use:

The default port exposed from the container is 8081, so visit http://localhost:8081 or whatever URL/port you entered into your config (if running standalone) or whatever config.site.baseUrl (if mounting as a middleware).

Pre-requisite:

• Docker Desktop 4.15

Usage:

By using Mongo Express Docker Extension, it's easy to setup Mongo Express on Docker Desktop with just one click.

Deploy to IBM Cloud

Doing manually:

• Git clone this repository
• Create a new or use already created MongoDB service
• Change the file examples/ibm-cloud/manifest.yml to fit your IBM Cloud app and service environment

Doing automatically:

• Click the button below to fork into IBM DevOps Services and deploy your own copy of this application on IBM Cloud

Then, take the following action to customize to your environment:

• Create your config.js file based on config.default.js
  • Check if it is necessary to change the dbLabel according to the MongoDB service created
  • Change the basicAuth properties, do not to keep the default values

Usage with the mongo-express package

If you install mongo-express as a package, install the express-openid-connect dependency:

yarn add express-openid-connect

Setup the OAuth2 application

The current implementation supports OAuth2 Authorization Code Flow Grant, to make it work you need to setup a client on your Identity Provider, and pass the parameters to the application:

ME_CONFIG_OIDCAUTH_ENABLED=true
ME_CONFIG_OIDCAUTH_BASEURL=https://<domain>/<base-url>
ME_CONFIG_OIDCAUTH_ISSUER=<authority>
ME_CONFIG_OIDCAUTH_CLIENTID=<client-id>
ME_CONFIG_OIDCAUTH_CLIENTSECRET=<client-secret> # Optional
ME_CONFIG_OIDCAUTH_SECRET=<random-generated-string>
ME_CONFIG_SITE_COOKIESECRET=<client-secret>
ME_CONFIG_SITE_BASEURL=/<base-url>

To register your client, you will need the application's redirect URI, which can be obtained by appending /callback to the application base URL: Eg. https://example.com/mongo-express/callback

A single connection already exposes every database on that server, provided admin access is on — set ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_ENABLE_ADMIN=true, or mongodb.admin in config.js. Without it, only the database named in the connection string is listed.

To reach databases on separate MongoDB servers, give mongodb a list of connections instead of a single one. This needs a config.js: the environment variables describe one connection only.

// config.js
export default {
  mongodb: [
    {
      connectionString: 'mongodb://user:pass@mongo-a:27017/?authSource=admin',
      connectionName: 'reporting',
      admin: true,
    },
    {
      connectionString: 'mongodb://user:pass@mongo-b:27017/orders',
      connectionName: 'orders',
    },
  ],
};

With more than one connection, databases are listed as <connectionName>_<databaseName> — reporting_analytics, orders_orders and so on — so that databases sharing a name across servers stay distinct. connectionName is optional and defaults to connection0, connection1, and so on, which is rarely what you want to read in the interface.

Each entry takes the same keys as the single-connection form, so admin, whitelist, blacklist and connectionOptions can differ per server.

• Simple search takes the user provided fields (key & value) and prepares a MongoDB find() object, with projection set to {} so returns all columns.
• Advanced search passes the find and projection fields/objects straight into MongoDB db.collection.find(query, projection). The find object is where your query happens, while the projection object determines which columns are returned.

See MongoDB db.collection.find() documentation for examples and exact usage.

Pull Requests are always welcome! 💖

• Documents must have the document._id property to be edited
• Binary BSON data type not tested

We are currently trying to use Cypress, to open cypress use the command `cypress open`
To instrument the code to allow the E2E coverage to run, please run this command: `yarn nyc instrument --compact=false lib instrumented`

• Binary/BinData

JSON documents are parsed through a javascript virtual machine, so the web interface can be used for executing malicious javascript on a server.

mongo-express should only be used privately for development purposes.

The following BSON data types are supported in the mongo-express document editor/viewer.

Native Javascript Types

Strings, numbers, lists, booleans, null, etc.

All numbers in Javascript are 64-bit floating points.

ObjectID/ObjectId

ObjectId()

Creates a new Object ID type.

ObjectId(id)

Use Object ID with the given 24-digit hexadecimal string.

ISODate

ISODate()

Creates a new ISODate object with the current time.

new Date() can also be used (note the new keyword there).

ISODate(timestamp)

Uses ISODate object with the given timestamp.

UUID

UUID()

Creates a new UUID v4.

Can also be used new UUID() (note the new keyword there).

UUID(uuid)

Uses UUID v4 with the given 24-digit hexadecimal string.

Example: UUID("dee11d4e-63c6-4d90-983c-5c9f1e79e96c") or UUID("dee11d4e63c64d90983c5c9f1e79e96c")

DBRef/Dbref

DBRef(collection, objectID)

DBRef(collection, objectID, database)

Object ID is the ID string, not the ObjectId type.

The database value is optional.

Timestamp

Timestamp()

Creates a new Timestamp object with a value of 0.

Timestamp(time, ordinal)

Example: Timestamp(ISODate(), 0).

See https://www.mongodb.com/docs/mongodb-shell/reference/data-types/#timestamp for more info about the Timestamp data type.

Code

Code(code)

Code can be a native Javascript function, or it can be a string.

Specifying a scope/context is not supported.

MinKey

MinKey()

MaxKey

MaxKey()

Symbol

Symbol(string)

Here is an example of a document which can be read/edited in mongo-express (media truncated for legibility):

{
  "_id": ObjectId(),
  "dates": {
    "date": ISODate("2012-05-14T16:20:09.314Z"),
    "new_date": ISODate(),
    "alternative": new Date()
  },
  "photo": "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4...",
  "video": "data:video/webm;base64,GkXfo...",
  "audio": "data:audio/ogg;base64,T2dnUw...",
  "bool": true,
  "string": "hello world!",
  "list of numbers": [
    123,
    111e+87,
    4.4,
    -12345.765
  ],
  "reference": DBRef("collection", "4fb1299686a989240b000001"),
  "ts": Timestamp(ISODate(), 1),
  "minkey": MinKey(),
  "maxkey": MaxKey(),
  "func": Code(function() { alert('Hello World!') }),
  "symbol": Symbol("test")
}