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Copilot AI commented Sep 26, 2025

Problem

SCIM filtering on MongoDB was generating inefficient queries for case-insensitive string operations, causing severe performance degradation:

{
  "Attribute.SchemaAttributeId": "26d51050-4962-4348-a6cb-310c198eeee3",
  "$expr": {
    "$eq": [
      { "$toLower": { "$ifNull": ["$Attribute.ValueString", ""] } },
      "150017355"
    ]
  }
}

This query pattern forced MongoDB into full collection scans because $expr with $toLower and $ifNull functions prevent index usage, resulting in ~2.11 minutes execution time for 859k documents.

Solution

Implemented MongoDB-specific optimizations that replace problematic $expr queries with index-friendly regex patterns for case-insensitive string operations.

Key Changes

1. Optimized Expression Engine

  • New MongoDbOptimizedExpressionExtensions class generates regex-based queries instead of $expr queries
  • Uses anchored regex patterns (^value$) that MongoDB can optimize with indexes
  • Handles all SCIM string operations: equality (eq), starts-with (sw), ends-with (ew), and contains (co)

2. Enhanced Index Strategy

  • Added compound index: SchemaAttributeId_1_ValueString_1 for efficient attribute filtering
  • Added case-insensitive collation index for ValueString field
  • Maintains existing indexes for backward compatibility

3. Selective Optimization

  • Only optimizes case-insensitive string operations (CaseExact = false)
  • Preserves existing behavior for case-sensitive queries, non-string attributes, and complex expressions
  • Transparent to API consumers - no application code changes required

Performance Impact

The optimization specifically targets the problematic query pattern:

  • Before: $expr functions → Full collection scan → Poor performance
  • After: Regex patterns → Index-supported queries → Significant improvement

Example Query Transformation

// Before (inefficient)
Expression.Call(Expression.Coalesce(property, Expression.Constant("")), "ToLower")

// After (optimized)  
var regex = new Regex($"^{Regex.Escape(value)}$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
Expression.Call(regex, "IsMatch", property)

Testing

  • Added comprehensive test suite with 5 new tests validating the optimization logic
  • All existing SCIM tests (7) continue to pass, ensuring backward compatibility
  • Tested various string operation scenarios: equality, starts-with, ends-with, contains

Backward Compatibility

Fully backward compatible

  • Case-sensitive queries unchanged
  • Non-string attribute queries unchanged
  • Complex attribute expressions unchanged
  • All existing functionality preserved

The fix addresses the specific performance bottleneck reported in the issue while maintaining complete compatibility with existing SCIM implementations.

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>[SCIM] Performance issue filtering on MongoDb</issue_title>
<issue_description>Hello,

we are using SCIM on MongoDb database.

We facing issue calling this:

/Groups?filter=eventid eq "150017355"&startIndex=1&count=100&excludedAttributes=meta,schema,members

that is translated in:

{
"Attribute.SchemaAttributeId": "26d51050-4962-4348-a6cb-310c198eeee3",
"$expr": {
"$eq": [
{ "$toLower": { "$ifNull": ["$Attribute.ValueString", ""] } },
"150017355"
]
}
}

Because of $toLower and $ifNull, MongoDB cannot use the existing indexes and is forced into a full collection scan

Documents examined: ~859k
Documents returned: 9
Execution time: ~2.11 minutes

Can you please help us?

Regards.
Gabriele</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes #926

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Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] [SCIM] Performance issue filtering on MongoDb Fix MongoDB performance issue for case-insensitive SCIM filtering Sep 26, 2025
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[SCIM] Performance issue filtering on MongoDb

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