How can I save multiple documents concurrently in Mongoose/Node.js?

Mongoose does now support passing multiple document structures to Model.create. To quote their API example, it supports being passed either an array or a varargs list of objects with a callback at the end:

Candy.create({ type: 'jelly bean' }, { type: 'snickers' }, function (err, jellybean, snickers) {
    if (err) // ...
});

Or

var array = [{ type: 'jelly bean' }, { type: 'snickers' }];
Candy.create(array, function (err, jellybean, snickers) {
    if (err) // ...
});

Edit: As many have noted, this does not perform a true bulk insert - it simply hides the complexity of calling save multiple times yourself. There are answers and comments below explaining how to use the actual Mongo driver to achieve a bulk insert in the interest of performance.

Bulk inserts in Mongoose can be done with .insert() unless you need to access middleware.

Model.collection.insert(docs, options, callback)

https://github.com/christkv/node-mongodb-native/blob/master/lib/mongodb/collection.js#L71-91

Mongoose doesn't have bulk inserts implemented yet (see issue #723).

Since you know the number of documents you're saving, you could write something like this:

var total = docArray.length
  , result = []
;

function saveAll(){
  var doc = docArray.pop();

  doc.save(function(err, saved){
    if (err) throw err;//handle error

    result.push(saved[0]);

    if (--total) saveAll();
    else // all saved here
  })
}

saveAll();

This, of course, is a stop-gap solution and I would recommend using some kind of flow-control library (I use q and it's awesome).

I know this is an old question, but it worries me that there are no properly correct answers here. Most answers just talk about iterating through all the documents and saving each of them individually, which is a BAD idea if you have more than a few documents, and the process gets repeated for even one in many requests.

MongoDB specifically has a batchInsert() call for inserting multiple documents, and this should be used from the native mongodb driver. Mongoose is built on this driver, and it doesn't have support for batch inserts. It probably makes sense as it is supposed to be a Object document modelling tool for MongoDB.

Solution: Mongoose comes with the native MongoDB driver. You can use that driver by requiring it require('mongoose/node_modules/mongodb') (not too sure about this, but you can always install the mongodb npm again if it doesn't work, but I think it should) and then do a proper batchInsert

Use async parallel and your code will look like this:

  async.parallel([obj1.save, obj2.save, obj3.save], callback);

Since the convention is the same in Mongoose as in async (err, callback) you don't need to wrap them in your own callbacks, just add your save calls in an array and you will get a callback when all is finished.

If you use mapLimit you can control how many documents you want to save in parallel. In this example we save 10 documents in parallell until all items are successfully saved.

async.mapLimit(myArray, 10, function(document, next){
  document.save(next);
}, done);

Here is another way without using additional libraries (no error checking included)

function saveAll( callback ){
  var count = 0;
  docs.forEach(function(doc){
      doc.save(function(err){
          count++;
          if( count == docs.length ){
             callback();
          }
      });
  });
}

Newer versions of MongoDB support bulk operations:

var col = db.collection('people');
var batch = col.initializeUnorderedBulkOp();

batch.insert({name: "John"});
batch.insert({name: "Jane"});
batch.insert({name: "Jason"});
batch.insert({name: "Joanne"});

batch.execute(function(err, result) {
    if (err) console.error(err);
    console.log('Inserted ' + result.nInserted + ' row(s).');
}

Add a file called mongoHelper.js

var MongoClient = require('mongodb').MongoClient;

MongoClient.saveAny = function(data, collection, callback)
{
    if(data instanceof Array)
    {
        saveRecords(data,collection, callback);
    }
    else
    {
        saveRecord(data,collection, callback);
    }
}

function saveRecord(data, collection, callback)
{
    collection.save
    (
        data,
        {w:1},
        function(err, result)
        {
            if(err)
                throw new Error(err);
            callback(result);
        }
    );
}
function saveRecords(data, collection, callback)
{
    save
    (
        data, 
        collection,
        callback
    );
}
function save(data, collection, callback)
{
    collection.save
    (
        data.pop(),
        {w:1},
        function(err, result)
        {
            if(err)
            {               
                throw new Error(err);
            }
            if(data.length > 0)
                save(data, collection, callback);
            else
                callback(result);
        }
    );
}

module.exports = MongoClient;

Then in your code change you requires to

var MongoClient = require("./mongoHelper.js");

Then when it is time to save call (after you have connected and retrieved the collection)

MongoClient.saveAny(data, collection, function(){db.close();});

You can change the error handling to suit your needs, pass back the error in the callback etc.

You can use the promise returned by mongoose save, Promise in mongoose does not have all, but you can add the feature with this module.

Create a module that enhance mongoose promise with all.

var Promise = require("mongoose").Promise;

Promise.all = function(promises) {
  var mainPromise = new Promise();
  if (promises.length == 0) {
    mainPromise.resolve(null, promises);
  }

  var pending = 0;
  promises.forEach(function(p, i) {
    pending++;
    p.then(function(val) {
      promises[i] = val;
      if (--pending === 0) {
        mainPromise.resolve(null, promises);
      }
    }, function(err) {
      mainPromise.reject(err);
    });
  });

  return mainPromise;
}

module.exports = Promise;

Then use it with mongoose:

var Promise = require('./promise')

...

var tasks = [];

for (var i=0; i < docs.length; i++) {
  tasks.push(docs[i].save());
}

Promise.all(tasks)
  .then(function(results) {
    console.log(results);
  }, function (err) {
    console.log(err);
  })

This is an old question, but it came up first for me in google results when searching "mongoose insert array of documents".

There are two options model.create() [mongoose] and model.collection.insert() [mongodb] which you can use. View a more thorough discussion here of the pros/cons of each option:

Mongoose (mongodb) batch insert?