How can I get a field alone from a model to show - node.js

Question

I have 2 models, a user model, and a follow model that handles the following of users. I would like to be able to get the followers to users in a get request. How can I get this?
Below is the user model
const userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
fullname: {
type: String,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true
},
username: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true
},
email: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true,
validate(value) {
if (!validator.isEmail(value)) {
throw new Error('Email is invalid')
}
}
},
password: {
type: String,
required: true,
minlength: 7,
trim: true,
validate(value) {
if (value.toLowerCase().includes('password')) {
throw new Error('Passwoed cannot contain "password"')
}
}
},
isActive: {
type: Boolean,
required: false,
default: true
}
})
Here is the Follow model that handles the following of users. When a logged-in user follows another user, we set the followedBy to the logged-in user and the user to the user that is getting followed.
const followSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
// the logged in user who will be trying to follow someone will be added to "followedBy"
// the user who is getting followed will be added to "user"
user: {
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
required: true,
ref: 'User'
},
followedBy: {
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
required: true,
ref: 'Showcase'
}
}, {
timestamps: true
})
Below is the post request where I would like to get a list of object id's that follows a user (passed through the id in the parameter)
// Get a users followers
router.get('/api/:id/followers', async (req, res) => {
try {
const followers = await Follow.find({
user: req.params.id
})
console.log(followers.followedBy)
res.status(200).send(followers)
} catch (e) {
res.status(500).send()
}
})
How can I get the object id's of followedBy?

Answer 1

You could put the followers and following actions into the user schema as attributes
const userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
fullname: {
type: String,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true
},
username: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true
},
email: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true,
validate(value) {
if (!validator.isEmail(value)) {
throw new Error('Email is invalid')
}
}
},
password: {
type: String,
required: true,
minlength: 7,
trim: true,
validate(value) {
if (value.toLowerCase().includes('password')) {
throw new Error('Passwoed cannot contain "password"')
}
}
},
isActive: {
type: Boolean,
required: false,
default: true
},
following: [
{
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: "User",
},
],
followers: [
{
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: "User",
},
]
});
const User = mongoose.model('User', userSchema)
if you still want to stick to having a Follow model here's a solution you might like
const followSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
//user below is the user that is being followed
user: {
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
required: true,
ref: 'User'
},{
timestamps: true
});
const Follow = mongoose.model('Follow', followSchema);
const userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
fullname: {
type: String,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true
},
username: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true
},
email: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true,
validate(value) {
if (!validator.isEmail(value)) {
throw new Error('Email is invalid')
}
}
},
password: {
type: String,
required: true,
minlength: 7,
trim: true,
validate(value) {
if (value.toLowerCase().includes('password')) {
throw new Error('Passwoed cannot contain "password"')
}
}
},
isActive: {
type: Boolean,
required: false,
default: true
},
following: [
{
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: "Follow",
},
],
followers: [
{
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: "Follow",
},
]
});
const User = mongoose.model('User', userSchema);
we can have a follow route in our API or server:
app.post('/follow/:user_id', (req, res) => {
//perform follow code
})
When user A clicks on a button to follow user B, we pass in user B's user_id as a parameter to our API like this
http://localhost:54757/follow/userB_id
We already know we're in user A's account because he's the one clicking on the follow button, so we can just get user A's user Id using an auth token that we must have given him upon signup/signin
In our API we create 2 new objects from the Follow model using the follow route
app.post('/follow/:user_id', (req, res) => {
//push this one into user B's "followers" array and save user B
const new_follow1 = new Follow({
user: userA_id //id gotten from session or auth token
});
//push this one into user A's "following" array and save user A
const new_follow2 = new Follow({
user: req.params.userB_id //id gotten from request parameters req.params
});
})
then finally save the two new Follows
new_follow1.save();
new_follow2.save()