MongoDB regularly collaborates with open source innovators like David Bekker, a Drupal core contributor with over 600 commit credits. David’s expertise lies in Drupal’s Database API and database driver modules, and he’s passionate about delivering business value through open source development.
Drupal is a widely used open-source content management system known for its robustness and flexibility, enabling users to create everything from personal blogs to enterprise-level applications. While Drupal typically relies on relational databases (e.g.,MySQL), there has been growing interest in the Drupal community in exploring how modern databases like MongoDB can improve efficiency.
In this guest post, David explores integrating MongoDB with Drupal to enhance its performance and scalability, helping Drupal remain competitive in the digital landscape.
–Rishabh Bisht, Product Manager, Developer Experience
Who am I?
Hello! My name is David Bekker (a.k.a. daffie), and I’m a seasoned Drupal core contributor with over 600 commit credits. I maintain Drupal’s Database API and database driver modules. My passion lies in open source development, driven by a desire to create maximum business value.
When I was looking for a new high-impact project to work on, I chose to develop a MongoDB driver for Drupal—one that stores entity instances as JSON objects. This project addresses Drupal’s evolving needs in a meaningful way.
User-centric innovation: Drupal’s next evolution
Drupal is rapidly evolving, making it particularly suitable for community and client portal solutions. This progression introduces new technical requirements, especially for authenticated, session-based scenarios like intranets and dashboards, which benefit from more adaptable storage solutions. While Drupal’s abstract database layer remains tied to the relational models, embracing NoSQL databases would better support its evolving needs for modern applications.
To understand why this shift is crucial, let’s compare this transition to a challenge Drupal faced years ago: optimizing sites for mobile devices. Back then, significant changes were needed to enhance mobile usability. Now, we face a similar paradigm shift as the market evolves from sites for anonymous users to those centered on authenticated users. Drupal must adapt, and Drupal on MongoDB is the key to this transformation. MongoDB, with its flexible, JSON-based structure, complements Drupal’s architecture well. A robust integration with MongoDB would enhance capabilities and better equip Drupal to meet the expanding demands of enterprises.
Beyond traditional use cases, Drupal on MongoDB is also ideal as a backend for iOS, Android, and JavaScript applications, providing personalized and scalable solutions.
Redefining data storage and retrieval
Drupal on MongoDB is more than just a new database option. It enhances Drupal’s ability to compete in a changing digital landscape.
Drupal’s robust entity system provides a solid foundation where everything is structured as an entity. Traditionally, Drupal leverages relational databases like MySQL or MariaDB, efficiently managing data across multiple tables. This approach performs well for sites with a large number of anonymous users. However, for sites with many authenticated users, the complexity of retrieving entity data from multiple tables can introduce performance challenges. Optimizing data retrieval can significantly enhance the user experience, making Drupal even more powerful for dynamic, user-centric applications.
With MongoDB, every Drupal entity instance is stored as a single JSON object, including all revisions, translations, and field data. This streamlined data structure allows for significantly faster retrieval, making Drupal a stronger solution for personalized, user-focused experiences.
As the market shifts toward authentication-driven sites, supporting MongoDB ensures that Drupal remains a competitive and scalable option. Rather than replacing Drupal’s strengths, this integration enhances them, allowing Drupal to meet modern performance demands while maintaining its flexibility and power.
Scalability: Why MongoDB makes sense for large Drupal projects
The scalability of NoSQL databases like MongoDB sets them apart from traditional relational databases such as MySQL or MariaDB. While relational databases typically rely on a single-server model, MongoDB supports horizontal scaling, enabling distributed setups with thousands of servers acting as a unified database. This architecture provides the performance needed for large-scale projects with millions of authenticated users.
As community-driven software, Drupal is built to support interactive, user-focused experiences, including forums, profiles, and content management. Traditionally, its relational model organizes data across multiple tables—similar to storing the chapters of a book separately in a library. This approach ensures data consistency and flexibility, making it highly effective for managing structured content.
However, as the demand for authentication-heavy sites grows, the way data is stored becomes a crucial factor in performance. MongoDB offers a more efficient alternative by storing entire entities as JSON objects—just like keeping an entire book intact rather than splitting it into separate chapters across different locations. This eliminates the need for complex table joins, significantly accelerating data retrieval and making MongoDB well suited for personalized dashboards and dynamic content feeds.
For small-scale sites, both relational and NoSQL approaches work. But when scalability, speed, and efficiency become priorities—particularly for sites with millions of authenticated users—MongoDB provides a natural and powerful solution for taking Drupal to the next level.
Example of a user entity stored in MongoDB
The sample document below is an example of how a user entity could look like in MongoDB, containing fields like _id, uid, uuid, and langcode. It includes an embedded user_translations array that holds user details such as name, email, timezone, status, and timestamps for various activities.
{
 _id: ObjectId('664afdd4a3a001e71e0b49c7'), 
 uid: 1,
 uuid: '841149cd-fe56-47c4-a112-6d23f561332f', 
 langcode: 'en', 
 user_translations: [ { 
 uid: 1, 
 uuid: '841149cd-fe56-47c4-a112-6d23f561332f', 
 langcode: 'en', 
 preferred_langcode: 'en', 
 name: 'root', 
 pass: '$2y$10$kjGuIsPOTDa2TseuWMFGS.veLzH/khl0SfsuZNAeRPRtABgfq5GSC', 
 mail: 'admin@example.com', 
 timezone: 'Europe/Amsterdam', 
 status: true, 
 created: ISODate('2024-05-20T07:37:54.000Z'), 
 changed: ISODate('2024-05-20T07:42:08.000Z'), 
 access: ISODate('2024-05-20T08:46:47.000Z'), 
 login: ISODate('2024-05-20T07:44:16.000Z'), 
 init: 'admin@example.com', 
 default_langcode: true, 
 user_translations__roles: [ { 
 bundle: 'user', 
 deleted: false, 
 langcode: 'en', 
 entity_id: 1, 
 revision_id: 1, 
 delta: 0, 
 roles_target_id: 'administrator'
 } ]
 } ], 
 login: ISODate('2024-05-20T07:44:16.000Z'), 
 access: ISODate('2024-05-20T08:46:47.000Z') 
}
Optimizing data storage for performance
Switching to MongoDB alone isn’t enough to make Drupal a top-tier solution for sites with a high number of authenticated users. Indeed, developers must rethink how data is stored.
In traditional Drupal setups optimized for anonymous users, caching mechanisms like Redis compensate for slow database queries. However, for authenticated users, where content is dynamic and personalized, this approach falls short. Drupal itself needs to be fast, not just its caching layer.
MongoDB enables developers to store data in the way the application uses it, reducing the need for complex queries that slow down performance. Instead of relying on costly operations like joins and subqueries, simple and efficient queries should be the norm. Tools like materialized views—precomputed query results stored as database tables—help achieve this, ensuring faster data retrieval while keeping the database structured for high performance.
Why MongoDB for Drupal?
While many databases support JSON storage, MongoDB is the only one that fully meets Drupal’s needs. Its capabilities extend beyond basic JSON support, making it the optimal choice for storing entity instances efficiently.
Additionally, MongoDB offers several key advantages that align with Drupal’s evolving requirements:
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Horizontal scaling: Easily distribute database load across multiple servers, making it scalable for large user bases.
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Integrated file storage: Store user-uploaded files directly in the database instead of on the web server, simplifying hosting.
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Built-in full-text search: Eliminates the need for separate search solutions like SOLR, reducing infrastructure complexity.
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AI capabilities: Supports AI vectors, allowing for features like advanced search and personalization tailored to a site’s content.
Current status
Drupal’s journey to embracing more flexible data storage solutions is advancing with promising developments:
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The MongoDB driver for Drupal is available as a contrib module for Drupal 11, with over 99% of core tests passing.
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Discussions are ongoing to merge MongoDB support into Drupal core, pending community contributions.
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Finalist / Tech Blog is already running entirely on MongoDB.
These steps mark a significant transition for Drupal, showcasing its evolution towards accommodating non-relational databases like MongoDB. It paves the way for broader applications and more robust infrastructure by leveraging MongoDB’s strengths in flexibility and scalability.
Conclusion
As the web moves toward more personalized, user-centric experiences, Drupal must evolve to remain competitive. MongoDB is a key enabler of this evolution, providing faster, more scalable solutions for authenticated user-heavy sites. By embracing MongoDB, Drupal developers can unlock new performance possibilities, simplify infrastructure, and build future-ready web applications.
Check out the tutorial on how to run Drupal on MongoDB Atlas and start experiencing the benefits of this powerful integration today!
Want to get involved? Join the conversation in the Drupal community via Slack in the #mongodb and #contribute channels. Let’s shape the future of Drupal together!
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