How can I access an object from a Mongoose Schema through the form? - node.js

Question

I have this mongoose schema:
var mongoose = require("mongoose"),
passportLocalMongoose = require("passport-local-mongoose");
let userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
username:
{type: String,
unique: true
},
password: String,
privileges:
{
region: [Number],
read: [Boolean],
write: [Boolean],
edit: [Boolean],
delete: [Boolean]
}
});
userSchema.plugin(passportLocalMongoose);
module.exports = mongoose.model("User", userSchema);
and I'm using this with the following form:
<form action="/register" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="username"><br/>
<input type="password" name="password"><br/>
<input type="text" name="privileges.region"><br/>
<input type="text" name="privileges.read"><br/>
<input type="text" name="privileges.write"><br/>
<input type="text" name="privileges.edit"><br/>
<input type="text" name="privileges.delete"><br/>
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
I suppose the name is okay because privileges is an object, so every property should be accessed with the dot notation. If it's not, please let me know.
req.body looks like this:
When I try to console.log(req.body.privileges.region) or any other property, I get undefined. How should I access one of the privileges objects properties? Thanks.

Answer 1

The keys for the dictionary coming back on the request are actually the strings: 'privileges.region', 'privileges.delete', etc. So you must access them as
req.body['privileges.region']
People will generally write a helper function that handles this sort of notation to map it back their original model. Or they might do the mapping when the form is submitted in the browser in order to get the data in the shape you really want it:
{username
permissions:{region, ...}
...
}