How to validate in Mongoose an array and the same time its elements

Question

I have this schema where I validated the elements of array book, but I don't know how to validate the array itself.

 var DictionarySchema = new Schema({   
        book: [
            {              
                1: {
                    type: String,
                    required: true
                },
                2: String,
                3: String,
                c: String,
                p: String,
                r: String
            }
        ]
    });

For example, I would like to put the book array as required. Any help?

Answer 1

You can use a custom validator to do this. Simply check that the array itself is not empty:

var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
    Schema = mongoose.Schema;

mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/test');

var bookSchema = new Schema({

  1: { type: String, required: true },
  2: String,
  3: String,
  c: String,
  p: String,
  r: String
});

var dictSchema = new Schema({
  books: [bookSchema]
});

dictSchema.path('books').validate(function(value) {
  return value.length;
},"'books' cannot be an empty array");

var Dictionary = mongoose.model( 'Dictionary', dictSchema );


var dict = new Dictionary({ "books": [] });


dict.save(function(err,doc) {
  if (err) throw err;

  console.log(doc);

});

Which will throw an error when there is no content in the array, and otherwise pass off the validation for the rules supplied for the fields in the array.