Compress Network Traffic

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Overview

Specify Compression Algorithms
Compression Algorithm Dependencies
API Documentation

Overview

In this guide, you can learn how to use the Java driver to enable network compression. The driver provides a connection option to compress messages, which reduces the amount of data passed over the network between MongoDB and your application.

The driver supports the following compression algorithms:

Snappy: Available in MongoDB Server v3.4 and later.
Zlib: Available in MongoDB Server v3.6 and later.
Zstandard: Available in MongoDB Server v4.2 and later.

The driver tests against the following versions of these libraries:

org.xerial.snappy:snappy-java:1.1.10.3
com.github.luben:zstd-jni:1.5.5-3

If you specify multiple compression algorithms, the driver selects the first one in the list supported by your MongoDB instance.

Note

Applications that require Snappy or Zstandard compression must add explicit dependencies for those algorithms. To learn more, see the Compression Algorithm Dependencies section of this guide.

Specify Compression Algorithms

You can enable compression for the connection to your MongoDB instance by specifying the algorithms in one of the following ways:

Use the compressors parameter in your connection string.
Chain the compressorList() method to the MongoClientSettings.builder() method.

Select the Connection String or MongoClientSettings tab to see the corresponding syntax:

Include the following parameters in your connection string to enable compression:

Option Name	Type	Description
`compressors`	string	Specifies one or more compression algorithms that the driver will attempt to use to compress requests sent to the connected MongoDB instance. Possible values include: `zlib`, `snappy`, and `zstd`. Default: `null`
`zlibCompressionLevel`	integer	Specifies the degree of compression that Zlib uses to decrease the size of requests to the connected MongoDB instance. The level can range from `-1` to `9`, with lower values compressing faster (but resulting in larger requests) and larger values compressing slower (but resulting in smaller requests). Default: `null`

The following specifies the order in which the driver will attempt to compress requests before they are sent:

ConnectionString connectionString = new ConnectionString(
        "mongodb+srv://<db_username>:<db_password>@<cluster-url>/?compressors=snappy,zlib,zstd");
MongoClient client = MongoClients.create(connectionString);

For more information about these parameters, see the ConnectionString API documentation.

Chain the following methods to your MongoClientSettings constructor to modify the driver's compression behavior:

Method	Description
`compressorList()`	Sets the compressors to use for compressing messages to the server.

MongoClientSettings settings = MongoClientSettings.builder()
        .compressorList(Arrays.asList(MongoCompressor.createSnappyCompressor(),
                        MongoCompressor.createZlibCompressor(),
                        MongoCompressor.createZstdCompressor()))
        .build();
MongoClient client = MongoClients.create(settings);

For more information about the chained methods, see the MongoClientSettings.Builder API documentation.

Compression Algorithm Dependencies

The JDK natively supports Zlib compression. However, Snappy and Zstandard depend on open source Java implementations. To learn more about these implementations, see the following GitHub repositories:

API Documentation

To learn more about any of the methods or types discussed in this guide, see the following API documentation:

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