Users are able to post items which other users can request. So, a user creates one item and many users can request it. So, I thought the best way would be to put an array of users into the product schema for who has requested it. And for now I just want to store that users ID and first name. Here is the schema:
const Schema = mongoose.Schema;
const productSchema = new Schema({
title: {
type: String,
required: true
},
category: {
type: String,
required: true
},
description: {
type: String,
required: true
},
userId: {
type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: 'User',
required: true
},
requests: [
{
userId: {type: Object},
firstName: {type: String}
}
],
});
module.exports = mongoose.model('Product', productSchema);
In my controller I am first finding the item and then calling save().
exports.postRequest = (req, res, next) => {
const productId = req.body.productId;
const userId = req.body.userId;
const firstName = req.body.firstName;
const data = {userId: userId, firstName: firstName};
Product.findById(productId).then(product => {
product.requests.push(data);
return product
.save()
.then(() => {
res.status(200).json({ message: "success" });
})
.catch(err => {
res.status(500).json({message: 'Something went wrong'});
});
});
};
Firstly, is it okay to do it like this? I found a few posts about this but they don't find and call save, they use findByIdAndUpdate() and $push. Is it 'wrong' to do it how I have done it? This is the second way I tried it and I get the same result in the database:
exports.postRequest = (req, res, next) => {
const productId = req.body.productId;
const userId = req.body.userId;
const firstName = req.body.firstName;
const data = {userId: userId, firstName: firstName};
Product.findByIdAndUpdate(productId, {
$push: {requests: data}
})
.then(() => {
console.log('succes');
})
.catch(err => {
console.log(err);
})
};
And secondly, if you look at the screen shot is the data in the correct format and structure? I don't know why there is _id in there as well instead of just the user ID and first name. 
