Accessing a model's attributes from an associated model in Sails.js

Question

I'm running the beta version(v0.10.0-rc3) of Sails.js with the updated database adapter(for PostgreSQL) so that I have the functionality of associations via the Waterline ORM. I am trying to create a role-based user model for authorization depending on different access levels. The User to Role association is a One-to-Many. My Models are:

api/models/User.js

module.exports = {

  attributes: {
    firstName: {
      type: 'string',
      required: true
    },
    lastName: {
      type: 'string',
      required: true
    },
    fullName: function() {
      return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName;
    },
    email: {
      type: 'email',
      required: true,
      unique: true
    },
    encryptedPassword: {
      type: 'string'
    }, 
    role: {
      model: 'role'
    },
    groups: {
      collection: 'group',
      via: 'users'
    }
  },  

  toJSON: function() {
    var obj = this.toObject();
    delete obj.password;
    delete obj.confirmation;
    delete obj._csrf;
    return obj;
  },

  beforeCreate: function (values, next) {
    // Makes sure the password and password confirmation match
    if (!values.password || values.password != values.confirmation) {
      return next({err: ['Password does not match password confirmation.']});
    }

    // Encrypts the password/confirmation to be stored in the db
    require('bcrypt').hash(values.password, 10, function passwordEncrypted(err, encryptedPassword) {
      values.encryptedPassword = encryptedPassword;

       next();
    });
  }
};

api/models/Role.js

module.exports = {

  attributes: {
    name: {
      type: 'string',
      required: true,
      unique: true
    },
    users: {
      collection: 'user',
      via: 'role'
    },
    permissions: {
      collection: 'permission',
      via: 'roles',
      dominant: true
    }
  }
};

I know that Waterline doesn't support Through Associations yet, but I should still be able to access a role name that is associated with a user, correct? For example: user.role.name The only way I have been able to retrieve the role name as of now is to do a second query for the role object.

Answer 1

In order to access an associated model, you have to populate the association when you query the primary model, for example:

User.findOne(1).populate('role').exec(function(err, user) {

    if (err) {throw new Error(err);} 
    console.log(user.role.name);

}

Associations docs are here.