How to make Mongoose update work with await? - node.js

Question

I'm creating a NodeJS backend where a process reads in data from a source, checks for changes compared to the current data, makes those updates to MongoDB and reports the changes made. Everything works, except I can't get the changes reported, because I can't get the Mongoose update action to await.
The returned array from this function is then displayed by a Koa server. It shows an empty array, and in the server logs, the correct values appear after the server has returned the empty response.
I've digged through Mongoose docs and Stack Overflow questions – quite a few questions about the topic – but with no success. None of the solutions provided seem to help. I've isolated the issue to this part: if I remove the Mongoose part, everything works as expected.
const parseJSON = async xmlData => {
const changes = []
const games = await Game.find({})
const gameObjects = games.map(game => {
return new GameObject(game.name, game.id, game)
})
let jsonObj = require("../sample.json")
Object.keys(jsonObj.items.item).forEach(async item => {
const game = jsonObj.items.item[item]
const gameID = game["#_objectid"]
const rating = game.stats.rating["#_value"]
if (rating === "N/A") return
const gameObject = await gameObjects.find(
game => game.bgg === parseInt(gameID)
)
if (gameObject && gameObject.rating !== parseInt(rating)) {
try {
const updated = await Game.findOneAndUpdate(
{ _id: gameObject.id },
{ rating: rating },
{ new: true }
).exec()
changes.push(
`${updated.name}: ${gameObject.rating} -> ${updated.rating}`
)
} catch (error) {
console.log(error)
}
}
})
return changes
}
Everything works – the changes are found and the database is updated, but the reported changes are returned too late, because the execution doesn't wait for Mongoose.
I've also tried this instead of findOneAndUpdate():
const updated = await Game.findOne()
.where("_id")
.in([gameObject.id])
.exec()
updated.rating = rating
await updated.save()
The same results here: everything else works, but the async doesn't.

Answer 1

As #Puneet Sharma mentioned, you'll have to map instead of forEach to get an array of promises, then await on the promises (using Promise.all for convenience) before returning changes that will then have been populated:
const parseJSON = async xmlData => {
const changes = []
const games = await Game.find({})
const gameObjects = games.map(game => {
return new GameObject(game.name, game.id, game)
})
const jsonObj = require("../sample.json")
const promises = Object.keys(jsonObj.items.item).map(async item => {
const game = jsonObj.items.item[item]
const gameID = game["#_objectid"]
const rating = game.stats.rating["#_value"]
if (rating === "N/A") return
const gameObject = await gameObjects.find(
game => game.bgg === parseInt(gameID)
)
if (gameObject && gameObject.rating !== parseInt(rating)) {
try {
const updated = await Game.findOneAndUpdate(
{ _id: gameObject.id },
{ rating: rating },
{ new: true }
).exec()
changes.push(
`${updated.name}: ${gameObject.rating} -> ${updated.rating}`
)
} catch (error) {
console.log(error)
}
}
})
await Promise.all(promises)
return changes
}
(The diff, for convenience:
9,10c9,10
< let jsonObj = require("../sample.json")
< Object.keys(jsonObj.items.item).forEach(async item => {
---
> const jsonObj = require("../sample.json")
> const promises = Object.keys(jsonObj.items.item).map(async item => {
33a34
> await Promise.all(promises)
)
EDIT: a further refactoring would be to use that array of promises for the change descriptions themselves. Basically changePromises is an array of Promises that resolve to a string or null (if there was no change), so a .filter with the identity function will filter out the falsy values.
This method also has the advantage that changes will be in the same order as the keys were iterated over; with the original code, there's no guarantee of order. That may or may not matter for your use case.
I also flipped the if/elses within the map function to reduce nesting; it's a matter of taste really.
Ps. That await Game.find({}) will be a problem when you have a large collection of games.
const parseJSON = async xmlData => {
const games = await Game.find({});
const gameObjects = games.map(game => new GameObject(game.name, game.id, game));
const jsonGames = require("../sample.json").items.item;
const changePromises = Object.keys(jsonGames).map(async item => {
const game = jsonGames[item];
const gameID = game["#_objectid"];
const rating = game.stats.rating["#_value"];
if (rating === "N/A") {
// Rating from data is N/A, we don't need to update anything.
return null;
}
const gameObject = await gameObjects.find(game => game.bgg === parseInt(gameID));
if (!(gameObject && gameObject.rating !== parseInt(rating))) {
// Game not found or its rating is already correct; no change.
return null;
}
try {
const updated = await Game.findOneAndUpdate(
{ _id: gameObject.id },
{ rating: rating },
{ new: true },
).exec();
return `${updated.name}: ${gameObject.rating} -> ${updated.rating}`;
} catch (error) {
console.log(error);
}
});
// Await for the change promises to resolve, then filter out the `null`s.
return (await Promise.all(changePromises)).filter(c => c);
};