File Structure of Mongoose & NodeJS Project

Here’s a sample app/models/item.js

var mongoose = require("mongoose");

var ItemSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
  name: {
    type: String,
    index: true
  },
  equipped: Boolean,
  owner_id: {
    type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
    index: true
  },
  room_id: {
    type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
    index: true
  }
});

var Item = mongoose.model('Item', ItemSchema);

module.exports = {
  Item: Item
}

To load this from an item controller in app/controllers/items.js I would do

  var Item = require("../models/item").Item;
  //Now you can do Item.find, Item.update, etc

In other words, define both the schema and the model in your model module and then export just the model. Load your model modules into your controller modules using relative require paths.

To make the connection, handle that early in your server startup code (server.js or whatever). Usually you’ll want to read the connection parameters either from a configuration file or from environment variables and default to development mode localhost if no configuration is provided.

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost');