Mongoose populate does not populate array

Question

I have struggled with the mongoose.model.populate function for hours now. I have even tried directly copying and pasting several solutions without luck.

I have a User model which is supposed to contain an array of 'Dilemmas' which he/she has created, but I have been unable to populate it.

Here are the models as well as the implementation of populate().

User.js

const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const Schema = mongoose.Schema;

// Create Schema
const UserSchema = new Schema({
  username: {
    type: String,
    required: true
  },
  email: {
    type: String,
    required: true
  },
  password: {
    type: String,
    required: true
  },
  date: {
    type: Date,
    default: Date.now
  },
  dilemmas: [
    {
      type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
      ref: "Dilemma"
    }
  ]
});

module.exports = User = mongoose.model("User", UserSchema, "users");

Dilemma.js

const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const slug = require("mongoose-slug-generator");
const Schema = mongoose.Schema;
mongoose.plugin(slug);

// Create Schema
const DilemmaSchema = new Schema({
  creator: {
    type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
    ref: "User"
  },
  title: {
    type: String
  },
  slug: {
    type: String,
    slug: "title"
  },
  red: {
    type: String,
    required: true
  },
  blue: {
    type: String,
    required: true
  },
  red_votes: {
    type: Number,
    default: 0,
    required: true
  },
  blue_votes: {
    type: Number,
    default: 0,
    required: true
  },
  likes: [
    {
      user: {
        type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
        ref: "User"
      }
    }
  ],
  comments: [
    {
      user: {
        type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
        ref: "User"
      },
      text: {
        type: String,
        required: true
      },
      author: {
        type: String
      },
      avatar: {
        type: String
      },
      date: {
        type: Date,
        default: Date.now
      }
    }
  ],
  date: {
    type: Date,
    default: Date.now
  }
});

module.exports = Dilemma = mongoose.model("Dilemma", DilemmaSchema, "dilemmas");

Routes.js

// @route   GET api/users/profile
// @desc    Gets logged in user's profile
// @access  Private
router.get(
  "/profile",
  passport.authenticate("jwt", { session: false }),
  (req, res) => {
    User.find({ username: req.user.username })
      .populate("dilemmas")
      .then(user => {
        if (!user) {
          errors.nouser = "There is no user";
          return res.status(404).json(errors);
        }
        res.json(user);
      })
      .catch(err => res.status(400).json(err));
  }
);

JSON Response

[
    {
        "_id": "5b807beef770e7c7e6bf7ce0",
        "dilemmas": [],
        "username": "Jonas",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "password": "$2a$10$QaqljS9x08YQ9N9EuCBTpO114ZJUFuVxAV80xMzImNi8eW2frPg0C",
        "date": "2018-08-24T21:43:10.411Z",
        "__v": 0
    }
]

JSON Dilemmas response

[
    {
        "red_votes": 0,
        "blue_votes": 0,
        "_id": "5b80975f6e47fecba621f295",
        "user": "5b807beef770e7c7e6bf7ce0",
        "title": "Am i the real author asdsdasd?",
        "red": "This is the red dilemma",
        "blue": "This is the blue dilemma",
        "likes": [],
        "comments": [],
        "date": "2018-08-24T23:40:15.381Z",
        "slug": "am-i-the-real-author-asdsdasd",
        "__v": 0
    },
    {
        "red_votes": 0,
        "blue_votes": 0,
        "_id": "5b808e789bc36bcae8c6c3ad",
        "creator": "5b807beef770e7c7e6bf7ce0",
        "title": "Am i the real author?",
        "red": "This is the red dilemma",
        "blue": "This is the blue dilemma",
        "likes": [],
        "comments": [],
        "date": "2018-08-24T23:02:16.565Z",
        "slug": "am-i-the-real-author",
        "__v": 0
    }
]

JSON Users response

{
    "_id": {
        "$oid": "5b807beef770e7c7e6bf7ce0"
    },
    "dilemmas": [],
    "username": "Jonas",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "password": "$2a$10$QaqljS9x08YQ9N9EuCBTpO114ZJUFuVxAV80xMzImNi8eW2frPg0C",
    "date": {
        "$date": "2018-08-24T21:43:10.411Z"
    },
    "__v": 0
}

could you post your sample collections for both the documents — Ashh
– Ashh, Commented Aug 25, 2018 at 4:18
Can you try rendering the dilemmas in your View? I believe there is a known issue with populate() that the data does not show in the JSON although you can display it in a view. — dikuw
– dikuw, Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 19:30
@Michael, I guess I can try. I haven't created the view yet though, but I will let you know once i am done. — Jonas Mohr Pedersen
– Jonas Mohr Pedersen, Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 19:31

chipmunk · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-12 15:29:58Z

8

I just encountered a similar issue myself. Populating a ref worked, but populating an array of refs did not. I was able to get the array populate to work by explicitly specifying the model name in the populate call, e.g.:

User.find({ ... }).populate({
  path: 'dilemmas',
  model: 'Dilemma',
});

I don't know why this makes a difference, when the name of the referenced model is already specified in the schema.

answered Jun 12, 2019 at 15:29

chipmunk

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Comments

Baboo · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-24 23:35:12Z

0

Have you tried this?

User.find({ username: req.user.username })
  .populate("dilemmas")
  .exec() // <-- add exec() to perform the search
  .then(user => {
    ...
  })

answered Aug 24, 2018 at 23:35

Baboo

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4 Comments

Baboo Over a year ago

Are you sure you have dilemmas in database for the user Jonas?

Jonas Mohr Pedersen Over a year ago

Yep, i actually posted the json response showing it, might have been edited out.

Baboo Over a year ago

I'm asking this because the reponse JSON has an empty dilemmas array without any objectId in it

Jonas Mohr Pedersen Over a year ago

Yea, that is the whole problem. The JSON in the post is the response from the profile route, which is supposed to contain all the dilemmas created by the user. I have confirmed that there exists dilemmas in the database with an author ID of the same as the user

H. Majury · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-24 23:40:43Z

0

Did you check the documentation here?

https://mongoosejs.com/docs/populate.html#refs-to-children

It shows a similar setup (with Authors and Stories.) It mentions 'pushing' stories to be able to use a find / populate combo.

answered Aug 24, 2018 at 23:40

H. Majury

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1 Comment

Jonas Mohr Pedersen Over a year ago

Yea, i read it earlier and tried to replicate what they had shown for my project. But nothing seems to work...

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