How to populate the User object with Mongoose and Node - node.js

Question

I am trying to add a couple of attributes to the scaffolded MEAN.js User entity.
locationName: {
type: String,
trim: true
}
I also have created another entity Book connected with User. Unfortunately, I think I do not quite grasp the concept behind the populate method because I am not able to "populate" the User entity with the locationName attribute.
I tried the following:
/**
* List of Books
*/
exports.list = function(req, res) {
Book.find().sort('-created').populate('user', 'displayName', 'locationName').exec(function(err, books) {
if (err) {
return res.status(400).send({
message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
});
} else {
res.jsonp(books);
}
});
};
Unfortunately, I get the following error:
/home/maurizio/Workspace/sbr-v1/node_modules/mongoose/lib/connection.js:625
throw new MongooseError.MissingSchemaError(name);
^
MissingSchemaError: Schema hasn't been registered for model "locationName".
Any suggestion?
Thanks
Cheers

Answer 1

The error is clear, you should have a schema for the locationName.
If your location is just a string property in your user model and does not refer to separate model, you don't need and shouldn't use populate with it, it will simply be returned as a property of the returned user object from mongoose find() method.
If your want to make your location a stand alone entity (different mongodb document), you should have a mongoose model that defines your location object, aka have a file in your app\models name for example: location.server.model.js that contains something like:
var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Schema = mongoose.Schema;
var LocationSchema = new Schema({
_id: String,
name: String
//, add any additional properties
});
mongoose.model('Location', LocationSchema);
Note that the _id here replaces the auto generated objectId, so this has to be unique, and this the property you should refer to in your User object, meaning if you have a location like this:
var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Location = mongoose.model('Location');
var _location = new Location({_id:'de', name:'Deutschland'});
you should refer to it in your User object like this:
var _user=new User({location:'de'});
//or:
var _user=new User();
_user.location='de';
then you should be able to populate your location object with your user, like this:
User.find().populate('location').exec(function(err, _user) {
if (err) {
//handle error
} else {
//found user
console.log(_user);
//user is populated with location object, makes you able to do:
console.log(_user.location.name);
}
});
I suggest you to further read in mongodb data modeling and mongoose Schemas, Models, Population.