Why is my Mongoose schema missing one of its fields? - node.js

Question

This is my schema:
var RegionSchema = new Schema({
"metadata": {
"type": String,
"name": String,
"children": [{
"name": String,
"type": String
}],
"parent": Schema.ObjectId
},
"data": [DataContainer]
});
This is a unit test I am writing, in which I store an instance of this object with some null values:
describe('Region with no data', function() {
it('Should save without error', function(done) {
var emptyRegion = new Region({
"metadata": {
"type": "City",
"name": "San Diego",
"children": [],
"parent": null
},
"data": []
});
emptyRegion.save(function(err, saved) {
console.log(saved)
if (err) throw err;
if (saved.metadata.name === "San Diego")
done();
})
});
});
However, when I try to print out what is saved, I get this:
{ __v: 0, _id: 551cd261cc55c5ff48c8150b, data: [] }
Why is my metadata object not saving? Even before the save call, emptyRegion looks just like that. Am I not defining my metadata correctly?

Answer 1

The annoying culprit is the type field within the metadata subdocument. Mongoose interprets that as meaning that metadata is of type String and has a bunch of irrelevant properties. Change your schema definition to the following and it should work:
var RegionSchema = new Schema({
"metadata": {
"type": {"type": String},
"name": String,
"children": [{
"name": String,
"type": {"type": String}
}],
"parent": Schema.ObjectId
},
"data": [DataContainer]
});
Alternatively, use a different name for your type fields.