meteor.js - pushing array to user collection

Question

CONTEXT

I've just created a new user and now want to push a value on to an array within my user collection. I'm using the following codes:

//User Schema - in User Collection
Schema.User = new SimpleSchema({
userEvents: {
    type: [String],
    optional: true
}, [...]


//User Methods - in server/methods
Meteor.methods({
  'addUserEvent': function (organizerId, params) {
   console.log(organizerId);
   console.log(params);     

    Meteor.users.update({ 
        organizerId: organizerId
    },{
        $set:params
      });
  }  
});

//Create new event and add ID of event to current user - in events controller
EventsController.events({
'click #mainEventType' : function(event) {

    var organizerId = Accounts.userId();
    var eventStatus = "processStarted";

    //get value from selection
    var mainEventType = event.target.alt;

    var eventParams = {
        organizerId: organizerId,
        mainEventType: mainEventType,
        eventStatus: eventStatus
    }


    //Insert Event and use callback to get the id of the even you just inserted
    Meteor.call('addEvent', eventParams, function(error, result){
        //use session set to store value of user id and event id
        Session.set("organizerId", Accounts.userId());          
        Session.set("myEventId", result)

        console.log("organizer ID: " + Session.get("organizerId"));
        console.log("usereventId: " + Session.get("myEventId"));



    });

    eventId = [] 
    eventId.push(Session.get("myEventId"))
    //set params for user   
    var userParams = {
        userEvents: eventId
    }

    console.log(userParams)

    Meteor.call('addUserEvent', Session.get("organizerId"), userParams);

}, [...]

PROBLEM

The two console logs in the User Method yield the correct values (ie of the event that was just created and of the current user). However, I am unable to add these to the user collection. Looking at it through both console and terminal (meteor mongo) reveals that the field hasn't been filled. Also, the console.log 's in the addUserEvent method are never being called, so maybe there is a problem there.

Answer 1

You are calling two methods client side. They are called asynchronously so the second call is already fired when the first is still executing. That's why you have callbacks. In order to fix your code, have the second call to addUserEvent inside the callback of addEvent . And check error before calling addUserEvent .

Something like this:

//Insert Event and use callback to get the id of the even you just inserted
Meteor.call('addEvent', eventParams, function(error, result){
    //use session set to store value of user id and event id
    Session.set("organizerId", Accounts.userId());          
    Session.set("myEventId", result)

    console.log("organizer ID: " + Session.get("organizerId"));
    console.log("usereventId: " + Session.get("myEventId"));

    if (!error) {
        eventId = [] 
        eventId.push(Session.get("myEventId"))
       //set params for user   
       var userParams = {
           userEvents: eventId
       }

       console.log(userParams)

       Meteor.call('addUserEvent', Session.get("organizerId"), userParams);
    }

});

BTW, if you want access to this , add .bind(this) to the callback like this:

Meteor.call('addEvent', eventParams, function(error, result){
   // Your callback function body
}.bind(this));

Answer 2

UPDATE

For anyone else having a similar problem, the issue was that you need to use $push instead of $set . This is what the push function should look like:

'addUserEvent': function (organizerId, params) {

Meteor.users.update({
    _id: organizerId
    } , { 
    $push: params
 });

}