Overview
In this guide, you can learn about the BSON data format, how MongoDB uses it, and how to install the BSON library independently of the Kotlin driver.
BSON Data Format
BSON, or Binary JSON, is the data format that MongoDB uses to organize and store data.
This data format includes all JSON data structure types and also supports other types,
including dates, different size integers, ObjectId values, and
binary data. For a complete list of supported types, see the
BSON Types page in the MongoDB server manual.
The binary format is not human-readable, but you can use the Java BSON library to convert it to a JSON representation. To learn more about the relationship between these formats, see the JSON and BSON article.
MongoDB and BSON
The Kotlin driver, which uses the BSON library, allows you to work with BSON data by using one of the object types that implements the BSON interface. The following types implement the BSON interface:
Document (BSON library package)
BsonDocument (BSON library package)
RawBsonDocument (BSON library package)
JsonObject (BSON library package)
BasicDBObject (JVM package)
Install the BSON Library
This section shows how to add the BSON library as a dependency to your project. If you added the Kotlin driver as a dependency to your project, you can skip this step since the BSON library is already included as a required dependency of the driver. For instructions on how to add the Kotlin driver as a dependency to your project, see the Getting Started with the Kotlin Driver guide.
Tip
Bill of Materials
We recommend adding the JVM driver Bill of Materials (BOM) to your application to manage the versions of driver artifacts. This removes the need to specify a version for any individual package covered by the BOM, simplifying dependency management. To learn more, see the Getting Started with the Kotlin Driver guide.
We recommend that you use the Maven or Gradle build automation tool to manage your project's dependencies. Select from the following tabs to see the dependency declaration for that tool:
The following snippet shows the dependency declaration in the
dependencies section of your pom.xml file.
<dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>org.mongodb</groupId> <artifactId>bson</artifactId> </dependency> </dependencies>
The following snippet shows the dependency declaration in the
dependencies object in your build.gradle file.
dependencies { compile 'org.mongodb:bson' }
If you are not using one of the preceding tools, you can include it in your project by downloading the JAR file directly from the sonatype repository.