mongoose save fails without error

Question

As the title suggests I'm having problems with mongoose save method, which fails but does not produce an error.

I actually know why it fails, which is down to the userId field being marked as required but not being provided... but I don't know why it doesn't throw an error. I've exhausted google and stackoverflow looking at similar suggestions with no luck, so throwing it open to anyone who can help me!

Here's the code...

Model.js

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

var TimeSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    client: String,
    matter: String,
    activity: String,
    tags: String,
    description: String,
    comments: [String],
    startTime: Date,
    startTimeUTC: Number,
    endTime: Date,
    endTimeUTC: Number,
    duration: Number, 
    durationRnd: Number,    
    durationUnits: Number,  
    billable: Boolean,
    rate: Number,
    total: Number,
    user: String,
    userId: { type: mongoose.Schema.ObjectId, required: true }
}, {safe: true});

mongoose.model("Time", TimeSchema);


Controller.js

exports.addTime = function (req, res) {

    console.log('Adding time: ' + JSON.stringify(req.body));
    var time = new Time(req.body);
    time.save(function (err) {
        if (err) { res.send({'error' : err}); }
        res.send(time);
    });
}

EDIT - To clarify the callback is being called, take the following code for example.

exports.addTime = function (req, res) {

    console.log('Adding time: ' + JSON.stringify(req.body));
    var time = new Time(req.body);
    console.log("time = " + time);
    // TODO user
    time.save(function (err) {
        if (err) { handleError(res, err); }
        console.log("ok");
        Time.findById(time._id, function (err, found) {
            console.log("found = " + found);
        });
        res.send(time);

});

}

and here's the console output

Adding time: {"description":"test","client":"","matter":"","activity":"","rate":
"","startTime":"2013-11-30T19:58:43.000Z","startTimeUTC":"1385841523000","endTim
e":"2013-11-30T19:58:45.000Z","endTimeUTC":"1385841525000","startLocale":"19:58"
,"startTimeLocale":"19:58:43","endLocale":"19:58","endTimeLocale":"19:58:45"}
time = { description: 'test',
  client: '',
  matter: '',
  activity: '',
  rate: null,
  startTime: Sat Nov 30 2013 19:58:43 GMT+0000 (GMT Standard Time),
  startTimeUTC: 1385841523000,
  endTime: Sat Nov 30 2013 19:58:45 GMT+0000 (GMT Standard Time),
  endTimeUTC: 1385841525000,
  startTimeLocale: '19:58:43',
  endTimeLocale: '19:58:45',
  _id: 529a43750a366b6419000001,
  comments: [] }
ok
POST /api/times 200 14ms - 313b
found = null

Answer 1

It is very possible to run into this error by naively not connecting to the database. Has happened several times to me. Make sure your mongoose.connect() is in place.

Answer 2

Problem solved, thanks to robertkelp.

Here's my revised code in case if ever helps anyone, but it appears the error was being thrown I just wasn't handling it correctly.

exports.addTime = function (req, res) {

    console.log('Adding time: ' + JSON.stringify(req.body));
    var time = new Time(req.body);
    time.save(function (err) {
        if (err) { 
            handleError(res, err);
        }
        else {
            res.send(time);
        }
    });
}

Answer 3

My Problem was not solved by using findOne, it was solved by defining the fields i updated , in the model schema. so my code was like that:

          User.findOne({email:data.userData.email}, function (err, user) {
                    if (!err && user!=undefined){
                        console.log(user);
                        var userDiscounts = user.discounts;
                        for(var i=0;i<userDiscounts.length;i++){

                            if (userDiscounts[i]!=undefined && userDiscounts[i].code=="XXXXXX"){
                                userDiscounts[i].claimed = true;

                                console.log('discount claimed');

                            }
                        }
                        user.discounts = userDiscounts;
                        user.fbDiscountClaimed = true;
                        user.save(function(err) {
                            if (err) console.log(err);
                            console.log('Saved Hashve-FB as claimed');


                        });
                    }


                });
            }
        }

But the schema of the discount and user model was missing the definition of types of user.discounts so i added the following:

  var UserSchema = new Schema({
  name: String,
  email: { type: String, lowercase: true },
   role: {
   type: String,
   default: 'user'
 },
  hashedPassword: String,
  provider: String,
  salt: String,
  messages:[],
  discounts:[{
  "name": String,
  "description": String,
  "created_at": String,
  "updated_at": String,
  "code": String,
  "claimed": Boolean
    }
    ],
   facebook: {},
   fbDiscountClaimed:false,
    twitter: {},
  google: {},
  github: {}
  });