Get Started with PyMongo

Install dependencies

Ensure you have the following dependencies installed in your development environment:

• Python3 version 3.8 or later

• pip

• dnspython

Create a project directory

In your shell, run the following command to create a directory called pymongo-quickstart for this project:

mkdir pymongo-quickstart

Select the tab corresponding to your operating system and run the following commands to create a quickstart.py application file in the pymongo-quickstart directory:

cd pymongo-quickstart
touch quickstart.py

cd pymongo-quickstart
type nul > quickstart.py

Install PyMongo

Select the tab corresponding to your operating system and run the following commands to create and activate a virtual environment in which to install the driver:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

python3 -m venv venv
. venv\Scripts\activate

With the virtual environment activated, run the following command to install the current version of PyMongo:

python3 -m pip install pymongo

Create a free MongoDB deployment on Atlas

Complete the Get Started with Atlas guide to set up a new Atlas account and load sample data into a new free tier MongoDB deployment.

Save your credentials

After you create your database user, save that user's username and password to a safe location for use in an upcoming step.

Find your MongoDB Atlas connection string

To retrieve your connection string for the deployment that you created in the previous step, log into your Atlas account and navigate to the Database section and click the Connect button for your new deployment.

Proceed to the Connect your application section and select "Python" from the Driver selection menu and the version that best matches the version you installed from the Version selection menu.

Select the Password (SCRAM) authentication mechanism.

Deselect the Include full driver code example option to view the connection string.

Copy your connection string

Click the button on the right of the connection string to copy it to your clipboard as shown in the following screenshot:

Update the placeholders

Paste this connection string into a file in your preferred text editor and replace the <username> and <password> placeholders with your database user's username and password.

Save this file to a safe location for use in the next step.

Create your PyMongo application

Copy and paste the following code into the quickstart.py file in your application:

from pymongo import MongoClient
uri = "<connection string URI>"
client = MongoClient(uri)
try:
    database = client.get_database("sample_mflix")
    movies = database.get_collection("movies")
    # Query for a movie that has the title 'Back to the Future'
    query = { "title": "Back to the Future" }
    movie = movies.find_one(query)
    print(movie)
    client.close()
except Exception as e:
    raise Exception("Unable to find the document due to the following error: ", e)

Assign the connection string

Replace the <connection string URI> placeholder with the connection string that you copied from the Create a Connection String step of this guide.

Run your application

In your shell, run the following command to start this application:

python3 quickstart.py

The output includes details of the retrieved movie document:

{
  _id: ...,
  plot: 'A young man is accidentally sent 30 years into the past...',
  genres: [ 'Adventure', 'Comedy', 'Sci-Fi' ],
  ...
  title: 'Back to the Future',
  ...
}