How to get the model name or model class of a waterline record?

Question

While different from a previous question I asked here, it's related and so wanted to link it.

I have been trying hard to find out how I can get the model name (identity) or model "class" (exposed in sails.models) of a record. So, given a waterline record, how can I find out its model name or class?

Example (of course here I know the model is User but that is an example):

User.findOne(1).exec(function(err, record) {
  // at this point think that we don't know it's a `user` record
  // we just know it's some record of any kind
  // and I want to make some helper so that:
  getTheModelSomehow(record);
  // which would return either a string 'user' or the `User` pseudo-class object
});

I have tried to access it with record.constructor but that is not User, and I couldn't find any property on record exposing either the model's pseudo-class object or the record's model name.

UPDATE: To clarify, I want a function to which I'll give ANY record, and which would return the model of that record as either the model name or the model pseudo-class object as in sails.models namespace.

modelForRecord(record) // => 'user' (or whatever string being the name of the record's model)

or

modelForRecord(record) // => User (or whatever record's model)

Answer 1

WOW, ok after hours of research, here is how I am doing it for those who are interested (it's a very tricky hack, but for now unable to find another way of doing):

Let's say record is what you get from a findOne, create, ... in the callback, to find out what instance it is, and so find the name of the model owning the record, you have to loop over all your models (sails.models.*) and make an instanceof call this way:

function modelFor(record) {
  var model;
  for (var key in sails.models) {
    model = sails.models[key];
    if ( record instanceof model._model.__bindData__[0] ) {
      break;
    }
    model = undefined;
  }
  return model;
}

Do not try to simply do instanceof model, that does not work

After if you need the model name simply modelFor(record).globalId to get it.

Answer 2

In your model definition why not just create a model attribute. Then the model will be returned with every record call. This will work even after the record become a JSON object.

module.exports = {
 attributes : {
      model : {type:'string',default:'User'}
 }
}