starting point for node.js app using mongodb and nowjs (not tested)

app.coffee

###
I came up with my own way that makes it as straightforward as possible to do 'databasing'.  It does use CoffeeScript which I also recommend because it makes things easier also.  If you really want to you can convert this to javascript on js2coffee.org. It will look very similar, with more punctuation for the most part.
It uses MongolianDeadBeef (mongolian) and NowJS (see nowjs.org, sudo npm install -g now).
You will need to specify express 2.x in the package.json to use it as is

Server: CoffeeScript (node.js)
###
    express = require 'express'                        #web server
    MongolianDeadBeef = require 'mongolian'            #database thing
    server = new MongolianDeadBeef                     #database thing
    nowjs = require 'now'                              #remote procedure call, easier than GET/POST
    fs = require 'fs'
    util = require 'util'

    db = server.db 'appdb'  #database thing, appdb is name of db

    app = express.createServer()                       #webserver stuff
    app.use express.cookieParser()                     #webserver stuff
    app.use express.session { secret: 'burrito13' }    #webserver stuff
    app.use express.static(__dirname + '/public')      #webserver stuff

    app.get "/", (req, res) ->                         #webserver stuff
      res.end fs.readFileSync 'index.html'

    nowjs = require 'now'                              #set up rpc stuff see nowjs.org
    everyone = nowjs.initialize app  

    everyone.now.dbinsert = (col, data) ->             #you can call these directly from js code in browser
      db.collection(col).insert data                   #database thing 

    everyone.now.dbupdate = (col, criteria, data) ->
      db.collection(col).update criteria, data         #database thing

    everyone.now.dbfind = (col, callback) ->           #nowjs rpc call
      db.collection(col).find().toArray (err, data) -> #database thing
        callback data

    app.listen 3000                                    #start webserver

###____________________________________________________________________________________


Client: (CoffeeScript, convert to JS with coffee -c main.coffee, include along with jquery and nowjs in head of html doc)
###
    $ ->
      now.ready ->
        now.dbfind 'things', (things) ->
          console.log things