Populate doesn't work Mongoose (no database insertion)

Question

I've got a big problem, i'm trying to use model associations in Mongoose because it would be really useful but there's something i don't get ...

Let's say there's a User model with a schema like ... (among others)

user_geos : [{

  type: Mongo.Schema.ObjectId,
  ref: 'UserGeo',

}]

And there's a UserGeo model with this schema ... (among others)

_user: {

  type: Mongo.Schema.ObjectId,
  ref: 'User'

}

Very simple, when I'm creating a new UserGeo, it should automatically add it to the user_geos array within User, right ?

   user_geo_infos._user = user.id;

    db.UserGeo.create(user_geo_infos, function(error, user_geo) {

        catches.error(error);
        console.log(user_geo);

    });

The big problem I got is when i'm creating it, it fills correctly the "_user" field in UserGeo in the database but the User model doesn't fill itself. The array stay empty ("[]"). A detail but you really understood is UserGeo got one User and User got many UserGeo.

I'm really stuck, did i do something wrong ? I checked everywhere and read the Mongoose documentation like 10 times now ...

Any idea ? Thanks people ;)

Answer 1

Very simple, when I'm creating a new UserGeo, it should automatically add it to the user_geos array within User, right ?

Nope. There is a lot less magic/automatic stuff here than you are hoping for. Mongodb, as well as mongoose, will only ever act upon a single collection at a time. This will do the querying automatically when you load records and use the mongoose .populate helper, but it doesn't help you writing across collections.

Answer 2

Ok I tried to make it manually and it works but i'm quite disappointed ... Looks like this ...

    db.UserGeo.create(user_geo_infos, function(error, user_geo) {

        db.User.findOne(user.id, function(error, user) { 

            catches.error(error);

            user.user_geos.push(user_geo.id);
            user.save();

        });

        catches.error(error);
        console.log(user_geo);

    });

After I create a UserGeo I get the User and then push the new data to the User field ...

This is solution is heavy, maybe make some helpers would make it lighter .. Thanks anyway :)