MongoDB Provider for Entity Framework Core Now Available in Public Preview

Shelby Carpenter and Megha Bharadwaj
October 12, 2023

We are pleased to announce that the MongoDB Provider for Entity Framework Core (EF Core) is now available in Public Preview. This makes it possible for developers using EF Core to build C#/.NET applications with MongoDB and take advantage of our powerful developer data platform while continuing to use APIs and design patterns they already know and love.

Building for the C#/.NET community

Nearly one-third of all developers use C# to build applications, with the population of C# developers reaching upwards of 10 million developers worldwide. Forty-one percent of C# developers use EF Core, which is beloved as an abstraction layer to simplify working with data during development. In the past, C# developers could use MongoDB’s C# driver but didn’t have first-party support for EF Core; some turned to community-built projects that could be helpful but lacked official backing or ongoing support from MongoDB.

With the official MongoDB Provider for EF Core now available in Public Preview, developers can use C# and EF Core with confidence when building with MongoDB.

What's in the New Provider for EF Core

In this initial Public Preview release, the MongoDB Provider for EF Core offers developers the following capabilities:

  • Support for code-first workflows: Allows users to build without an initial database; you first create the classes for your application and then match your data model to the classes, not the other way around.
  • Basic CRUD methods: Basic create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations are supported.
  • String and numeric type operators: String and numeric type operators needed for basic CRUD operations will be supported. We anticipate adding support for more complex operators in future iterations of the Provider.
  • Embedded documents: The Provider supports embedded documents, making it easier to store related information in the same database record.
  • Class mapping and serialization: Your classes in C# will map to MongoDB in a predictable way, including when working with IDs as well as date and/or time values.
  • LINQ query support: The Provider will support LINQ3 queries with fluent query syntax.
  • Change tracking: The Provider allows you to track and save changes made to entities with each DbContext instance back to your MongoDB database.

And this is just a start. Stay tuned for more advanced functionality when we release the MongoDB provider in General Availability (targeted for 2024).

Benefits of using the provider for EF Core

With the MongoDB Provider for EF Core, C# developers can unlock the full power of MongoDB's developer data platform to build modern applications while leveraging a familiar API interface, query paradigm (LINQ), and design patterns. Developers looking to modernize their data layer can do so with MongoDB while remaining free from cloud vendor lock-in since MongoDB works with all major cloud providers and for multi-cloud deployments

How to get started with MongoDB Provider for Entity Framework Core

All you need to do is download the MongoDB Provider for EF Core from the NuGet package manager and build a DbContext that points to a MongoDB Provider instance. The Provider connects to MongoDB and handles the rest, so you can quickly harness the joint value of EF Core and MongoDB.

You can learn more by diving into our documentation. After you try the new Provider for EF Core, feel free to leave us feedback in our user feedback portal. Your input is important for helping us continue to improve the product experience.

Get started today to unleash the power of your data with MongoDB and EF Core.

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Create and Customize your Own Billing Dashboard with Atlas Charts

When it comes to managing tech stacks, controlling expenses is a top priority for our customers. This summer, we've made it easier than ever to optimize your spend with new ways for visualizing and analyzing your Atlas billing data. Through Cost Explorer , you can conveniently analyze your billing data right within the Billing section of the Atlas UI. But that's not all! We know many of you prefer to craft your own Atlas billing dashboards – allowing you to customize, embed, and share tailor-made charts to align with your optimization strategies. With the latest release of Atlas Charts , we’ve made this easier than ever with a new out-of-the-box billing dashboard! Gone are the days of navigating to a Github repository , running scripts from your command line and manually importing a dashboard to gain insights into your Atlas bill. We understand the importance of quickly accessing and being able to answer questions about your Atlas spending, so we’ve made it a top priority to enhance your user experience by streamlining this process. Now, when you enter Charts, you’ll find a dedicated Ingestions page conveniently located in the left navigation menu. Here, you can effortlessly set up your scheduled billing data ingestion by entering your Organization API keys (or create them up following the steps we’ve included), and selecting the deployment and database where you’d like your data to live. Once you’ve completed the configuration and hit Save , your first ingestion job will be kicked off. Fresh data will be retrieved from the Atlas Billing API once a day to ensure the data in your nominated database is always up-to-date. After this initial job is complete, you can click Add and open to explore your new billing dashboard. Just like any other dashboard, you have the flexibility to filter and highlight charts within the billing dashboard, and customize or add new ones to tailor the dashboard to your specific needs. You could even share the billing dashboard with your team or schedule regular dashboard reports to be sent to your email. You have the freedom to manage your ingestion configuration at any time from the Ingestions page, whether you need to update your API key pair or change the database in which your data is stored. To learn more about visualizing your billing data in Atlas Charts, be sure to check out our documentation . We’re always listening to feature requests that will enhance using Charts across teams, so if you have any requests or feedback, please share them with us here . New to Atlas Charts? Get started today by logging into or signing up for MongoDB Atlas , deploying or selecting a cluster, and activating Charts for free.

October 12, 2023
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MongoDB Database Observability: Integrating with Monitoring Tools

This post is the final in a three-part series on leveraging database observability. Welcome back to our series on Leveraging Database Observability! Our previous post showcased a real-world use case highlighting how MongoDB Atlas’s observability tools effectively tackle database performance challenges. Whether you’re a developer, DBA, or DevOps engineer, our mission is to empower you to harness the full potential of your data through our observability suite . Integrating Atlas metrics with your central enterprise observability tools can simplify your operations. By seamlessly working with popular observability tools, our approach helps teams streamline workflows and enhance visibility across systems. Integrating MongoDB Atlas with third-party monitoring tools MongoDB’s developer data platform combines all essential data services for building modern applications within a unified experience. Our purpose-built observability tools for Atlas environments offer automatic monitoring and optimization, guiding diagnostics tailored specifically for MongoDB. Additionally, we extend Atlas metrics into your existing enterprise observability stack, enabling seamless integration without replacing your current tools. This creates a consolidated, single-pane view that unifies Atlas telemetry with other tech and application metrics, ensuring comprehensive visibility into both database and full-stack performance. This integration empowers you to monitor, receive alerts, and make data-driven decisions within your existing workflows, driving greater efficiency. Below is a quick guide to modifying integration settings through the Atlas UI and the popular integrations we support: Navigate to the Project Integrations page in Atlas. Choose the organization and project you want to configure from the navigation bar. On the Project Integrations page, select the third-party services you’d like to integrate. Configure the chosen services with the required API keys and regions. Critical integrations for your observability platform With Atlas’s Datadog and Prometheus integrations, you can send critical MongoDB metrics to these platforms, empowering detailed, real-time monitoring. Through Datadog , you can track database operation counts, query efficiency, and resource usage, ideal for pinpointing bottlenecks and managing resources. Similarly, Prometheus enables you to monitor essential metrics like query times, connection rates, and memory usage, supporting flexible tracking of database health and performance. Both integrations facilitate proactive detection of issues, alert configuration for resource thresholds, and a cohesive view of Atlas data when visualized in Grafana. Atlas’s integration with PagerDuty streamlines incident management by sending metrics like performance alerts, billing anomalies, and security events directly to PagerDuty. This integration records incidents automatically, notifies teams upon alerts, and supports two-way syncing, ensuring resolved alerts in Atlas are reflected in PagerDuty. It enables efficient incident response and resource allocation to maintain system stability. With Atlas integrations for Microsoft Teams and Slack, you can route key metrics—such as query latency, disk usage, and throughput—to these channels for timely updates. Teams can use these insights for real-time performance monitoring, incident response, and collaboration. Notifications through these platforms ensure your team stays informed on database performance, storage health, and user activity changes as they occur. Use case: Centralized observability with MongoDB Atlas, Datadog, and Slack Let’s walk through a hypothetical scenario for ShopSmart, an e-commerce company that leverages MongoDB Atlas to manage its product catalog and customer data. As traffic surges, the DevOps team faces challenges in monitoring application performance and database health effectively. To tackle these challenges, the team leverages MongoDB Atlas’ integration with Datadog and Slack, creating a powerful observability ecosystem. Integrating MongoDB Atlas with Datadog: The team pushes key MongoDB Atlas metrics into Datadog, such as query performance, connection counts, and Atlas Vector Search metrics. With Datadog, they can visualize these metrics and correlate overall MongoDB performance with their other applications. Out-of-the-box monitors and dedicated dashboards allow the team to track metrics like throughput, average read/write latency, and current connections. This visibility helps pinpoint bottlenecks in real time, ensuring optimal database performance and improving overall application responsiveness. Setting up alerts in Datadog: The team configures alerts for critical metrics like high query latency and increased error rates. When thresholds are breached, Datadog instantly notifies the team. This proactive approach allows the team to address potential performance issues before they impact customers. Integrating Datadog with Slack: To ensure fast communication, alerts are sent directly to the dedicated Slack channel, “ShopSmart-Alerts.” This integration fosters seamless collaboration, enabling the team to discuss and resolve issues in real-time. With these integrations, ShopSmart’s engineering team can monitor performance quickly and address issues efficiently. The unified observability approach enhances operational efficiency, improves the customer experience, and supports ShopSmart’s competitive edge in the e-commerce industry. By leveraging MongoDB Atlas, Datadog, and Slack, the team ensures scalable performance and drives continuous innovation. Conclusion MongoDB Atlas empowers developers and organizations to achieve unparalleled observability and control over their database environments. By seamlessly integrating with central enterprise observability tools, Atlas enhances your ability to monitor performance metrics and ensures you can do so within your existing workflows. This means you can focus on building modern applications confidently, knowing you have the insights and alerts necessary to maintain optimal performance. Embrace the power of MongoDB Atlas and transform your approach to database management—because your applications can thrive when your data is observable. And that wraps up our Leveraging Database Observability series! We hope you learned something new and found value in these discussions. Sign up for MongoDB Atlas , our cloud database service, to see database observability in action. To dive deeper and expand your knowledge, check out this learning byte for more insights on the MongoDB observability suite and how it can enhance your database performance.

November 14, 2024