meta.jargon.rst

MongoDB Documentation Jargon Conventions

MongoDB and Database Organization

Refer to MongoDB as "MongoDB" rather than mongo or Mongo when referring to the entire database system, including possibly mongod and mongos.

Refer to mongod or mongos by name to indicate the database process, or server instance itself. These are "processes" or "instances." Reserve "database" for referring to a database (i.e. the structure that holds collections and refers to a group of files on disk.)

Data Structures

Use the following convention when referring to specific parts of MongoDB data:

• document refers to "rows," or records in a MongoDB

database. Potential confusion with "JSON Documents."

• field refers to a "key" or "identifier" of data within a MongoDB

document.

• value refers to the contents of a field.

Use "sub-document" as needed to describe nested documents.

Other Terms

• Use "shard cluster," to refer to a collection of mongod instances that hold a sharded data set. Use the term "replica set," to refer to a collection of mongod instances that provide a replicated data set. Do not use the word "cluster" to refer to a replication only deployment.
• Use "example.net" (and .org or .com if needed) for all examples and samples.

The documentation project does not, as of early 2012, have a fixed set of nomenclature for describing interface elements, architectural components (daemons, databases, processes, drivers, hosts, mongos' etc.) Similarly, there is no standard nomenclature or examples for field names, values, variables, and other components of code examples.

At some point in the near future creating a more standardized the nomenclature for examples of architectural elements and code components may be necessary.