NoSQL Data Modeling about "one to many" relationships

Question

Good evening,

I'm trying to develop a small data model with MongoDB as backend. It's my first time developing with NoSQL databases and data models.

The big idea is this: there are a bunch of SERVICES that can be done and each SERVICE is doable in different places. As an example let's think of a website that shows where to eat (the Service), there are multiple places where you can do that, so there's 1 Service (EAT) for many places (PLACES).

I don't know how to model this, any ideas?

SERVICE {
_id: ObjectId,
Name: String,
Code: String
} // Data model for the Service Collection?

PLACES {
_id: ObjectId,
NameOfPlace: String,
Service1: String,
Service2: String,
...
Servicen: String
} /* This way, by using the flexibility of MongoDB, 
updating the document each time with some new (key, value).
Doesnt seem elegant nor efficient.*/

PLACES {
_id: ObjectId,
NameOfPlace: String,
Services: {
           NameOfService1: refID SERVICE COLLECTION,
           NameOfService2: refID SERVICE COLLECTION..
          }
} // Maybe this way is better? No idea how to do those tho'

Any better solutions that you can explain to me? Thanks everyone!

Answer 1

You should consider modeling them using references. Basically, a Place has a collection of Serivce's Ids

SERVICE {
_id: ObjectId,
Name: String,
Code: String
}

PLACES {
_id: ObjectId,
NameOfPlace: String,
Services: [Service1_id, Service2_id, ...]

}

You may read the following links for implementation details

MongoDB - Data Modeling introduction

MongoDB - Model One-to-many relationship with reference