Full-Stack React Projects - Second Edition

Using MongoDB GridFS to store large files

In previous chapters, we discussed how files uploaded by users could be stored directly in MongoDB as binary data; for example, when adding a profile photo in the Upload profile photo section in Chapter 5, Growing the Skeleton into a Social Media Application. But this only worked for files smaller than 16 MB. In order to store larger files in MongoDB, such as video files needed for this streaming application, we will need to use GridFS.

GridFS is a specification in MongoDB that allows us to store large files in MongoDB by dividing a given file into several chunks. Each chunk can be a maximum of 255 KB in size, and is stored as a separate document. When the file has to be retrieved in response to ...