MongoDB Query Returns Empty Nested Object

Question

I've got a 'conversations' collection in MongoDB which I'm querying from NodeJS to use the returned data to render the conversation's page.

The data has been stored in the database correctly as far as I can see, when I query it everything comes back as I'd expect, apart from a couple of nested objects - the two users that the conversation belongs to.

Here's what I get when I console.log a conversation (note the 'participants' field:

[ { _id: 57f96549cc4b1211abadf28e,
    __v: 1,
    messages: [ 57f96549cc4b1211abadf28d ],
    participants: { user2: [Object], user1: [Object] } } ]

In Mongo shell the participants has the correct info - the id and username for both participants.

Here's the Schema:

var ConversationSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
  participants: {
      user1:
        {
          id: String,
          username: String
        },
      user2:
        {
          id: String,
          username: String
        },
    },
  started: Number,
  messages: [
    {
      type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
      ref: "Message"
    }
  ]
});

Here's the creation of the conversation document:

var conv = {
  participants : {
    "user1" : {
      "id" : req.body.senderId,
      "username" : req.body.senderName
    },
    "user2" : {
      "id" : req.body.recipientId,
      "username" : req.body.recipientName
    }
  },
  created : Date.now(),
  messages : [] // The message _id is pushed in later.
}
Conversation.create(conv, function(err, newConvo){
  if(err){
    console.log(err);
  } else {
    newConvo.messages.push(newMessage);
    newConvo.save();
  }
})

And lastly, in case it's useful, here's the query to Mongo:

// view all conversations a user belongs to
app.get('/messages', function(req, res){
  Conversation.find({
    $or : [
      {"participants.user1.id" : req.user._id},
      {"participants.user2.id" : req.user._id}
    ]
  }, function(err, convos){
    if(err){
      console.log('Error getting Convos ' + err)
    } else {
      res.render('messages', {convos: convos, currentUser: req.user});
    }
  });
});

Thanks a lot for any help that!

andresk · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-08 22:28:20Z

1

It seems that everything is alright, the console.log just doesn't print nested objects by default. Try using:

console.log(JSON.stringify(conversation))

When logging a conversation in order to see the participants objects.

answered Oct 8, 2016 at 22:28

andresk

2,8751 gold badge15 silver badges17 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Runny Yolk Over a year ago

Thanks a lot Andresk. You're right, when I stringify it, I get the data I'm expecting. Still, when I pass it to the client side, I can't do anything with it. Do I have to stringify it and put it back into a JS object before passing it to the client?

andresk Over a year ago

I see from your other answer that you fixed, great :)

Runny Yolk · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-09 00:01:25Z

0

Fixed it!

Andresk's answer above was a big shove in the right direction. As he said, everything was OK, but I wasn't accessing the returned object in the correct way. It's obvious now, but I wasn't providing the index number for the 'convos' object.

I simply needed to do this, even though I was only getting one 'conversation' document back from MongoDB:

console.log(convos[0].participants.user1.username);

answered Oct 9, 2016 at 0:01

Runny Yolk

1,1644 gold badges25 silver badges43 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

MongoDB Query Returns Empty Nested Object

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related