Referance multiple documents Mongoose - node.js

Question

I'm trying to connect 3 different documents using mongoose (mainly to learn how to use it), I've set up 3 different schemas as follows:
(all of them are in there own files)
const Books = new Schema({
title: { type: String, required: true, unique: true },
description: String,
author: { type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Authors' },
stores: [{
available: Number,
store: { type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Stores' }
}]
});
exports.Books = mongoose.model('Books', Books);
const Authors = new Schema({
name: { type: String, required: true },
description: String,
born: Date,
died: { type: Date, default: null }
});
exports.Authors = mongoose.model('Authors', Authors);
const Stores = new Schema({
name: { type: String, required: true, unique: true },
description: String,
address: String
});
exports.Stores = mongoose.model('Stores', Stores);
and then I add the following data:
author.name = 'Jonathan Swift';
author.description = 'old satiric bloke';
author.born = new Date(1667, 10, 30);
author.died = new Date(1745, 9, 19);
author.save()
.catch((err) => console.log(err))
.then(() => console.log('author saved'));
store.name = 'Book shop 1';
store.description = 'This is where the cool kids buy all there books!';
store.address = 'La La Land, 123 Combaja street';
store.save()
.catch((err) => console.log(err))
.then(() => console.log('store saved'));
book.title = 'gullivers travels';
book.author = '58a79345711f2350999e0911'; // _id from the author save
book.description = 'A book about a big guy in a small world';
book.stores = [{
available: 8,
store: '58a79345711f2350999e0912' // _id from the store save
}];
book.save()
.catch((err) => console.log(err))
.then(() => console.log('store saved'));
The problem I find is that when I run book.find() it returns:
[
{
"_id": "58a795b8298b50527412815c",
"description": "A book about a big guy in a small world",
"author": {
"_id" : "58a79345711f2350999e0911",
"born" : -9532947600000,
"died" : -7075130400000,
"description" : "old satiric bloke",
"name" : "Jonathan Swift",
"__v" : 0
},
"title": "gullivers travels",
"__v": 0,
"stores": [
{
"available": 8,
"store": "58a79345711f2350999e0912",
"_id": "58a795b8298b50527412815d"
}
]
}
]
what I was expecting/hoping for was to get the entire store as well the same way as with the author, have I missed something or how should I go about this to achieve the expected result?
I've tried populate but without success

Answer 1

In your Books model author & stores.store are reference, you shouldn't have author field populated if you don't use populate().
If you specify directly the _id of your store & author you have just created :
var author = new Authors({
name: 'Jonathan Swift',
description: 'old satiric bloke',
born: new Date(1667, 10, 30),
died: new Date(1745, 9, 19)
});
author.save();
var store = new Stores({
name: 'Book shop 1',
description: 'This is where the cool kids buy all there books!',
address: 'La La Land, 123 Combaja street'
});
store.save();
var book = new Books({
title: 'gullivers travels',
author: author._id, // _id from the author save
description: 'A book about a big guy in a small world',
stores: [{
available: 8,
store: store._id // _id from the store save
}]
})
book.save();
Books.find() gives the expected result :
[
{
"_id": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42e00",
"title": "gullivers travels",
"author": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42dfe",
"description": "A book about a big guy in a small world",
"__v": 0,
"stores": [
{
"available": 8,
"store": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42dff",
"_id": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42e01"
}
]
}
]
If you want stores.store & author populated, use :
Books.find().populate([{path:'author'},{path:'stores.store'}]).exec(function(err, res) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});
It gives as expected author & stores.store both populated :
[
{
"_id": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42e00",
"title": "gullivers travels",
"author": {
"_id": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42dfe",
"name": "Jonathan Swift",
"description": "old satiric bloke",
"born": "1667-11-29T23:00:00.000Z",
"__v": 0,
"died": "1745-10-18T22:00:00.000Z"
},
"description": "A book about a big guy in a small world",
"__v": 0,
"stores": [
{
"available": 8,
"store": {
"_id": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42dff",
"name": "Book shop 1",
"description": "This is where the cool kids buy all there books!",
"address": "La La Land, 123 Combaja street",
"__v": 0
},
"_id": "58a7a2529a8b894656a42e01"
}
]
}
]