mongoose.js CastError: Cast to number failed for value "[object Object]" at path "undefined"

Question

Using Mongoose.js with node.js.

I have this schema:

var Photo = new Schema({
     URL:String
    ,description:String
    ,created_by:{type:ObjectId, ref:'User'}
    ,created_at:{type:Date, default:Date.now()}
});

var User = new Schema({
    name:{type:String,index:true}
    ,email:{type:String,index:true, unique:true}
});

//Task model                                                                                                                                                                                       
var Task = new Schema({
    title:String
   ,created_by:{type:ObjectId, ref: 'User'}
   ,created:{type:Date, default:Date.now()}
   ,responses:[{
       type:Number
      ,user:{type:ObjectId, ref: 'User'}
       ,comment:String
       ,avatarURL:String
       ,photo:{type:ObjectId, ref: 'Photo'}
      ,created:{type:Date, default:Date.now()}
   }]
});

//Group model                                                                                                                                                                                      
var Group = new Schema({
     name:String
    ,tasks:[Task]
});

and this code errors out (group is fine, task at that idx is fine,responses is an empty array,user is valid,photo is valid):

var typePhoto = 6;
 var resp = {
      type: typePhoto//photo                                                                                                                                                 
      ,user: user._id
      ,photo: photo._id
 };


 group.tasks[taskIdx].responses.push(resp); //errors out here

at that point I get the following error:

/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/utils.js:434
        throw err;
              ^
CastError: Cast to number failed for value "[object Object]" at path "undefined"
    at SchemaNumber.cast (/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/schema/number.js:127:9)
    at Array.MongooseArray._cast (/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/types/array.js:78:15)
    at Object.map (native)
    at Array.MongooseArray.push (/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/types/array.js:187:23)
    at exports.taskAddPhoto (/home/admin/notitws/routes/group.js:1097:35)
    at Promise.exports.createPhoto (/home/admin/notitws/routes/photos.js:106:4)
    at Promise.addBack (/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/promise.js:128:8)
    at Promise.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:96:17)
    at Promise.emit (/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/promise.js:66:38)
    at Promise.complete (/home/admin/notitws/node_modules/mongoose/lib/promise.js:77:20)

Any ideas on how to fix this or what may be causing it?

PS Don't know if it matters but in the call to get group I am populating tasks.responses.user and tasks.responses.photo and tasks.created_by.

Answer 1

The "type" keyword is used by mongoose to determine the type of the field. Mongoose probably thinks that responses is of type Number instead of array.

Try:

responses:[{
   type: {type: Number}
   ,user:{type:ObjectId, ref: 'User'}
   ,comment:String
   ,avatarURL:String
   ,photo:{type:ObjectId, ref: 'Photo'}
   ,created:{type:Date, default:Date.now()}
}]

Another alternative would be to wrap your response object into a schema then:

responses: [Response]

Answer 2

I am posting what fixed my casting to objectId. It is the story of updatedBy key of my features document. I added some comments to show you the problematic area corresponds to the casting issue.

import mongoose;

    var mongoose = require('mongoose');

define objectId;

    var ObjectId = mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId;

define the type in your schema;

    var featureSchema = new Schema({
        name: String,
        isSystem: { type: Number, min: 0, max: 1 },
        updatedBy: {type:ObjectId, ref:'users'}, //here I defined the field!
        updatedAt: { type: Date, default: Date.now }
});

and then insert the document via post method;

    app.post('/features', function (req, res){
          var feature;
          console.log("POST: ");
          console.log(req.body);
          feature = new Feature({
                   name: req.body.name,
                   isSystem: req.body.isSystem,
                   updatedBy: req.body.updatedBy, //here I insert the objectId field
                   updatedAt: new Date()
          });
          feature.save(function (err) {
                   if (!err) {
                            return console.log("created");
                   } else {
                        return console.log(err);
                   }
          });
         return res.json({ features: feature });
    });

and finally this is your json string. you can fire it from google chrome javascript console or a similar one;

    jQuery.post("/features", {
                "name": "Receipt",
                "isSystem": 0,
                "updatedBy": "528f3d44afcb60d90a000001" 
     },function (data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
                 console.log("Post resposne:"); console.dir(data);                 
                 console.log(textStatus);                             
                 console.dir(jqXHR);
     });