With Spring Data, is it needed to create Collections manually?

[MitchelNijdam-Rockstars]

Hello,

I want to use Mongock with Spring Data. Currently, by using the @Document(collection = "test") annotation of Spring on the data object, the application automatically creates the collections. However, in the examples of mongock for Spring I see that mongoTemplate.createCollection() is called manually from within the ChangeUnit. Is this really necessary? And what are the main reasons to create collections manually or automatically?

[osantana85]

Hello @MitchelNijdam-Rockstars , you are right, there is no reason to create the collection manually, it's more about to show "beforeExecution" feature, that allows you to make "schema" changes without transaction scope. But as said, in this case Spring Data will create the collections automatically for you.

[dieppa]

@MitchelNijdam-Rockstars I would also add that many people prefer to not rely on those annotations to create the DDLs, but instead having them in "scripts", so they have more control over it. Specially when it comes to production environment.

But once again, not necessary 😄

[MitchelNijdam-Rockstars]

Yes, that is also my experience with for example flyway. Thanks for the confirmation!