Reference documents with ObjectId when saving in mongoose

Question

I have the following schemas:

// ingredient var ingredSchema = new Schema({   name: String,   cost: Number });  // order var orderSchema = new Schema({   cusName: String,   ingredients: [{type: Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Ingredient'}] });  // create model var Ingredient = mongoose.model('Ingredient', ingredSchema); var Order = mongoose.model('Order', orderSchema); 

I have already saved a bunch ingredients in a collection ingredients and have a UI where users choose a set of ingredients for their burgers. I then try to save an order for a burger in another collection orders within the same database burgers like this:

// get order info from the form var newOrder = new Order({ cusName: req.body.name,                             ingredients: req.body.ingredients }); newOrder.save(function(err) {     if (err)         return console.log('Could not save your new order', err);     res.redirect('/order'); }); 

The call to save an order generates the following error:

{ message: Cast to ObjectId failed for value xxx at path 'ingredients',   name: 'CastError',   type: ObjectId,   value: xxx,   path: 'ingredients' } 

I use mongoose version 3.6.11. Please help me hack this.

PS: req.body.ingredients is an array built from checkboxes.

Answer 1

There are 2 possible problems with your code right now:

1. req.body.ingredients will not be an array of ObjectIds, and mongoose wants it alright (I doubt of this one).

You should cast every ingredient to ObjectId first. Supposing req.body.ingredients is array, then you would do something like this:

var casted = req.body.ingredients.map(function( ingredient ) {   return mongoose.Types.ObjectId(ingredient); }); 

I did not tested this, see if it'll work for you.

2. Mongoose is trying to cast your ingredients, but one of them is not a valid ObjectId

ObjectId should be composed of 24 hex chars, check whether you're passing values like this to Mongoose.

---

Please, post the result if one of them work for you :)