autopopulate & virtual in child schema does not work - node.js

Question

I have the following schemas:
"use strict";
const mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Schema = mongoose.Schema,
autopopulate = require('mongoose-autopopulate');
const child = new Schema({
userUuid: {
type: String,
required: true
},
timeStamp: {
type: Date,
default: new Date()
}
}, {toJSON: {virtuals: true}});
child.virtual('user', {
ref: 'users',
localField: 'userUuid',
foreignField: 'uuid',
autopopulate: true
});
const parentList= new Schema({
//some properties
children: [child]
});
parentList.plugin(autopopulate);
module.exports = parentList;
I need the Children's list to extract a full object - but it does not work.
When I put a single user not as a child then it works well:
const try= new Schema({
//some properties
userUuid: {
type: String,
required: true
}
}, {toJSON: {virtuals: true}});
try.virtual('user', {
ref: 'users',
localField: 'userUuid',
foreignField: 'uuid',
autopopulate: true
});
try.plugin(autopopulate);
module.exports = try;
This leads me to the conclusion that the problem is when the virtual is within the child schema
What am I missing?

Answer 1

Here's the full code of my attempt to reproduce yours :
const
{ randomUUID } = require('node:crypto'),
{ MongoMemoryServer } = require('mongodb-memory-server'),
mongoose = require('mongoose'),
{ Schema } = mongoose,
autopopulate = require('mongoose-autopopulate');
(async () => {
const
dbServer = await MongoMemoryServer.create(),
dbClient = mongoose.createConnection(dbServer.getUri());
dbClient.on('disconnected', () => dbServer.stop());
await new Promise(resolve => dbClient.once('connected', () => resolve()));
try {
const trySchema = new Schema({
//some properties
userUuid: {
type: String,
required: true
}
}, { toJSON: { virtuals: true } });
trySchema.virtual('user', {
ref: 'users',
localField: 'userUuid',
foreignField: 'uuid',
autopopulate: true
});
trySchema.plugin(autopopulate);
const childSchema = new Schema({
userUuid: {
type: String,
required: true
},
timeStamp: {
type: Date,
default: new Date()
}
}, { toJSON: { virtuals: true } });
childSchema.virtual('user', {
ref: 'users',
localField: 'userUuid',
foreignField: 'uuid',
autopopulate: true
});
childSchema.plugin(autopopulate);
const parentListSchema = new Schema({
//some properties
children: [childSchema]
});
parentListSchema.plugin(autopopulate);
const userSchema = new Schema({
uuid: {
type: String,
required: true
}
});
const
Try = dbClient.model('try', trySchema),
Child = dbClient.model('child', childSchema),
ParentList = dbClient.model('parentList', parentListSchema),
User = dbClient.model('users', userSchema);
const userUuid = randomUUID();
await new User({ uuid: userUuid }).save();
await new Try({ userUuid }).save();
const child = await new Child({ userUuid }).save();
await new ParentList({ children: [child] }).save();
console.log('User:', (await User.findOne().exec()).toJSON());
console.log('Try:', (await Try.findOne().exec()).toJSON());
console.log('Child:', (await Child.findOne().exec()).toJSON());
console.log('ParentList:', (await ParentList.findOne().exec()).toJSON());
}
catch(error){
console.error(error);
}
dbClient.close();
})();
Which outputs :
User: {
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe0097866"),
uuid: 'bb5af665-759a-4da0-880d-8a54ce42be4c',
__v: 0
}
Try: {
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe0097868"),
userUuid: 'bb5af665-759a-4da0-880d-8a54ce42be4c',
__v: 0,
user: [
{
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe0097866"),
uuid: 'bb5af665-759a-4da0-880d-8a54ce42be4c',
__v: 0
}
],
id: '62c6e7bcef50638fe0097868'
}
Child: {
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe009786b"),
userUuid: 'bb5af665-759a-4da0-880d-8a54ce42be4c',
timeStamp: 2022-07-07T14:03:40.902Z,
__v: 0,
user: [
{
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe0097866"),
uuid: 'bb5af665-759a-4da0-880d-8a54ce42be4c',
__v: 0
}
],
id: '62c6e7bcef50638fe009786b'
}
ParentList: {
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe009786e"),
children: [
{
userUuid: 'bb5af665-759a-4da0-880d-8a54ce42be4c',
timeStamp: 2022-07-07T14:03:40.902Z,
_id: new ObjectId("62c6e7bcef50638fe009786b"),
__v: 0,
id: '62c6e7bcef50638fe009786b'
}
],
__v: 0
}
I'm not sure what you meant about [needing] the Children's list to extract a full object.
If you were talking about Child.user then you were only missing child.plugin(autopopulate);.
If you were talking about ParentList.children then it worked out of the box for me.