Mongoose Promise not populating in script - node.js

Question

I have an api server and some script jobs. They are using the same function to pull a roster using mongoose and populate the players in the roster.
On the api server, this function is called normally. Using the script, it doesn't.
API example
function getRoster(id) {
var deferred = Q.defer();
Roster.find({_id:id}, 'playerRoster userId tournamentId').populate('playerRoster').exec(
function(err, roster) {
if (err) {
deferred.resolve(err);
}
deferred.resolve(roster[0]);
});
return deferred.promise;
}
api.post('/get_roster', function(req, res) {
// get tournament
var id = req.body._id;
var playerId = req.body.playerId;
getRoster(id).then(function(data) {
var roster=data;
res.json(roster);
});
});
Script
module.exports = function(config) {
this.getRoster=function(id) {
//return Roster.find({_id:id}, 'playerRoster userId tournamentId').exec( - THIS RETURNS
return Roster.find({_id:id}, 'playerRoster userId tournamentId').populate('playerRoster').exec(
function(err, roster) {
if (err) {
return err;
}
console.log('roster[0]',roster);
return roster[0];
});
}
this.tallyPoints = function(tournamentPlayer,sportsPlayers) {
var deferred = Q.defer();
var totalPoints =0;
console.log("tallyPoints 0 ",tournamentPlayer);
var rosterId = tournamentPlayer.player.roster[0];
console.log("tallyPoints 1 ",rosterId);
this.getRoster(rosterId).then(function(roster2){
console.log("tallyPoints 2 ",roster2);
...
deferred.resolve(totalPoints);
});
return deferred.promise;
}
return this;
};
In the script, neither logging for the roster[0] or tallyPoints 2 lines print, but there is no error either.
Why doesn't Roster.find return when I add populate? The only thing I can imagine is because playerRoster collection has 2000 records searching for ~10 and it hits some timeout that isn't being caught.
Any suggestion to clean it up is also appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

Moongoose supports promises for a long time. It's unsuitable to use callback-based Mongoose API where promises are desirable and the use of Q.defer with existing promises is known as Deferred antipattern (similarly, new Promise results in promise construction antipattern).
In its current state getRoster doesn't return a promise and doesn't handle errors correctly.
function getRoster(id) {
return Roster.find({_id:id}, 'playerRoster userId tournamentId').populate('playerRoster').exec()
.then(roster => roster[0]);
}
api.post('/get_roster', function(req, res) {
// get tournament
var id = req.body._id;
var playerId = req.body.playerId;
getRoster(id)
.then(function(data) {
var roster=data;
res.json(roster);
})
.catch(err => {
// handle error
});
});
Considering that only roster[0] is used, it likely should be changed to Roster.findOne.
It doesn't matter whether getRoster is used in Express route or elsewhere, it should work. It's unknown how module.exports = function(config) {...} module is used, but this may refer to wrong context if it isn't used as class. If getRoster and tallyPoints don't use config, they shouldn't reside inside this function.