My database setup includes 2 schemas:
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const PinSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
title: String,
content: String,
image: String,
latitude: Number,
longitude: Number,
author: {
type: mongoose.Schema.ObjectId,
ref: "User"
},
comments: [
{
text: String,
createdAt: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now,
author: {
type: mongoose.Schema.ObjectId,
ref: "User"
}
}
}
]
}, { timestamps: true });
module.exports = mongoose.model("Pin", PinSchema);
and
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const UserSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
name: String,
email: String,
picture: String
});
module.exports = mongoose.model("User", UserSchema);
In the Pin schema, the author field is linked to the _id in the User schema.
When trying to populate the comments' author field in the Pin schema like this:
const pinUpdated = await Pin.findOneAndUpdate(
{ _id: pinId },
{ $push: { comments: "some comment" } },
{ new: true }
).populate("author")
.populate("comments.author");
the author field in the result object turns out to be null, indicating that the population did not work as expected.
Using the native mongo syntax with $lookup may be an alternative, but in this case, it involves looking up a field in an array of objects:
db.pins.aggregate([
{
$lookup:
{
from: "users",
localField: "comments._id", // this won't work
foreignField: "_id",
as: "authorOutput"
}
}
])
What could be missing in the populate() method that is causing this issue?