does Sails js populate association automatically?

Question

Here two model with one to many relationship.

Video:

module.exports = {
  attributes: {
    ... (some attributes)
    createdBy:{
      model: "user"
    }
  }
};

User

module.exports = {
  attributes: {
      ... (some attributes)
    videos:{
      collection: "video",
      via: "createdBy"
    },
  }
};

And I'm using blueprints.js to request data to sails. If I have understood correctly, you can turn on or off auto population in config/blueprints.js (populate: ture) which I turned off. But when I request GET /video/1 for instance, it gave me populated data as following:

{
  "createdBy": {
    "user_type": 3,
    "id": 5,
    "createdAt": "2015-01-21T03:36:04.832Z",
    "updatedAt": "2015-02-03T04:35:02.671Z"
  },
  "title": "test video",
  "url": "http://localhost",
  "description": "testing submission",
  "view": 102,
  "id": 5,
  "createdAt": "2015-02-03T01:16:20.640Z",
  "updatedAt": "2015-02-03T04:34:26.726Z"
}

createdBy field where I believe it supposed to be just id of user. Is this expected behavior even though auto populate is turned off in blueprints.js?

Answer 1

you can configure this using config/blueprints.js. only change you have to do is find "populate", un-comment it and set as false.

/**
 * Blueprint API Configuration
 * (sails.config.blueprints)
 *
 * These settings are for the global configuration of blueprint routes and
 * request options (which impact the behavior of blueprint actions).
 *
 * You may also override any of these settings on a per-controller basis
 * by defining a '_config' key in your controller definition, and assigning it
 * a configuration object with overrides for the settings in this file.
 * A lot of the configuration options below affect so-called "CRUD methods",
 * or your controllers' `find`, `create`, `update`, and `destroy` actions.
 *
 * It's important to realize that, even if you haven't defined these yourself, as long as
 * a model exists with the same name as the controller, Sails will respond with built-in CRUD
 * logic in the form of a JSON API, including support for sort, pagination, and filtering.
 *
 * For more information on the blueprint API, check out:
 * http://sailsjs.org/#!/documentation/reference/blueprint-api
 *
 * For more information on the settings in this file, see:
 * http://sailsjs.org/#!/documentation/reference/sails.config/sails.config.blueprints.html
 *
 */

module.exports.blueprints = {

  /***************************************************************************
  *                                                                          *
  * Action routes speed up the backend development workflow by               *
  * eliminating the need to manually bind routes. When enabled, GET, POST,   *
  * PUT, and DELETE routes will be generated for every one of a controller's *
  * actions.                                                                 *
  *                                                                          *
  * If an `index` action exists, additional naked routes will be created for *
  * it. Finally, all `actions` blueprints support an optional path           *
  * parameter, `id`, for convenience.                                        *
  *                                                                          *
  * `actions` are enabled by default, and can be OK for production--         *
  * however, if you'd like to continue to use controller/action autorouting  *
  * in a production deployment, you must take great care not to              *
  * inadvertently expose unsafe/unintentional controller logic to GET        *
  * requests.                                                                *
  *                                                                          *
  ***************************************************************************/

  // actions: true,

  /***************************************************************************
  *                                                                          *
  * RESTful routes (`sails.config.blueprints.rest`)                          *
  *                                                                          *
  * REST blueprints are the automatically generated routes Sails uses to     *
  * expose a conventional REST API on top of a controller's `find`,          *
  * `create`, `update`, and `destroy` actions.                               *
  *                                                                          *
  * For example, a BoatController with `rest` enabled generates the          *
  * following routes:                                                        *
  * :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::                  *
  *  GET /boat -> BoatController.find                                        *
  *  GET /boat/:id -> BoatController.findOne                                 *
  *  POST /boat -> BoatController.create                                     *
  *  PUT /boat/:id -> BoatController.update                                  *
  *  DELETE /boat/:id -> BoatController.destroy                              *
  *                                                                          *
  * `rest` blueprint routes are enabled by default, and are suitable for use *
  * in a production scenario, as long you take standard security precautions *
  * (combine w/ policies, etc.)                                              *
  *                                                                          *
  ***************************************************************************/

  // rest: true,

  /***************************************************************************
  *                                                                          *
  * Shortcut routes are simple helpers to provide access to a                *
  * controller's CRUD methods from your browser's URL bar. When enabled,     *
  * GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE routes will be generated for the              *
  * controller's`find`, `create`, `update`, and `destroy` actions.           *
  *                                                                          *
  * `shortcuts` are enabled by default, but should be disabled in            *
  * production.                                                              *
  *                                                                          *
  ***************************************************************************/

  // shortcuts: true,

  /***************************************************************************
  *                                                                          *
  * An optional mount path for all blueprint routes on a controller,         *
  * including `rest`, `actions`, and `shortcuts`. This allows you to take    *
  * advantage of blueprint routing, even if you need to namespace your API   *
  * methods.                                                                 *
  *                                                                          *
  * (NOTE: This only applies to blueprint autoroutes, not manual routes from *
  * `sails.config.routes`)                                                   *
  *                                                                          *
  ***************************************************************************/

  // prefix: '',

  /***************************************************************************
   *                                                                          *
   * An optional mount path for all REST blueprint routes on a controller.    *
   * And it do not include `actions` and `shortcuts` routes.                  *
   * This allows you to take advantage of REST blueprint routing,             *
   * even if you need to namespace your RESTful API methods                   *
   *                                                                          *
   ***************************************************************************/

  // restPrefix: '',

  /***************************************************************************
  *                                                                          *
  * Whether to pluralize controller names in blueprint routes.               *
  *                                                                          *
  * (NOTE: This only applies to blueprint autoroutes, not manual routes from *
  * `sails.config.routes`)                                                   *
  *                                                                          *
  * For example, REST blueprints for `FooController` with `pluralize`        *
  * enabled:                                                                 *
  * GET /foos/:id?                                                           *
  * POST /foos                                                               *
  * PUT /foos/:id?                                                           *
  * DELETE /foos/:id?                                                        *
  *                                                                          *
  ***************************************************************************/

  // pluralize: false,

  /***************************************************************************
  *                                                                          *
  * Whether the blueprint controllers should populate model fetches with     *
  * data from other models which are linked by associations                  *
  *                                                                          *
  * If you have a lot of data in one-to-many associations, leaving this on   *
  * may result in very heavy api calls                                       *
  *                                                                          *
  ***************************************************************************/

   populate: false,

  /****************************************************************************
  *                                                                           *
  * Whether to run Model.watch() in the find and findOne blueprint actions.   *
  * Can be overridden on a per-model basis.                                   *
  *                                                                           *
  ****************************************************************************/

  // autoWatch: true,

  /****************************************************************************
  *                                                                           *
  * The default number of records to show in the response from a "find"       *
  * action. Doubles as the default size of populated arrays if populate is    *
  * true.                                                                     *
  *                                                                           *
  ****************************************************************************/

  // defaultLimit: 30

};