Mongoose, geospatial query for users

Question

I'm currently working with nodeJS, using express and mongoDB and mongoose for an ORM. When I create a User and save them to the database I would like to query their location and save it. This is what I am currently doing, I have a UserSchema and a location Schema.

My userSchema just has the location stored as a string and in the location Schema itself I have

var locationSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
   name: String,
   loc: {
       type: [Number],
       index: '2d'
   }
});

mongoose.model('Location', LocationSchema);

And then in my controller, I have the following

import json from '../helpers/json;
import mongoose from 'mongoose';
var User = mongoose.model('User);
module.exports = function() {
   var obj = {};

   obj.create = function (req, res) {
       var user = new User(req.body);
       user.roles = ['authenticated']
       user.location = getLocation(req);
       user.save(function (err) {
           if (err) {
              return json.bad(err, res);
           }

           json.good({
                 record: user,
           });
      });
    };

   return obj;

   function getLocation (req) {
       var limit = req.query.limit || 10;
       var maxDistance = req.query.distance || 1;
       maxDistance /= 6371;

       var coords = [];
       coords[0] = req.query.longitude;
       coords[1] = req.query.lattitude;

       Location.findOne({
           loc: {
               $near: coords,
               $maxDistance: maxDistance
           }
      }).limit(limit).exec(function (err, location) {
           if (err) {
              console.log(err);
           }

          return location.name;
     });
   }
};

I have also tried using location.find instead of findOne and returning locations[0].name.

The error is thrown says cast to the number failed for value undefined at loc.

Do I need to send the location data to the server from the client side? If so, is there a best method to implement this? I have heard of the HTML5 Geolocation API, but I have never utilized it.

Thank you!

!!! -- UPDATE --- !!

I have started using the Geolocation API on the client side to send this data to the server in the request. I am using angular on the client side like so

(function() {
  'use strict';

  angular.module('opinionated.authentication')
  .controller('SignupController', SignupController);

  /* @ngInject */
  function SignupController ($state, appUsers, appToast) {
    var vm = this;
    vm.reset = reset;
    vm.create = create;
    vm.user = {
        name: '',
        username: '',
        email: '',
        password: ''
   };
   vm.location = {
      lattitude: '',
      longitude: ''
   };

   function create = (isValid) {
      if (isValid) {
        var user = new appUsers.single({
             name: vm.user.name,
             username: vm.user.username,
             email: vm.user.email,
             password: vm.user.password,
             lattitude: vm.location.lattitude,
             longitutde: vm.location.longitude
        });

        user.$save(function (response) {
           if (response.success) {
              appToast('Welcome to Opinionated, ' +     response.res.record.name);
              $state.go('authentication.wizard')
            } else {
              appToast(response.res.messsage);
            }
        });
      } else {
         appToast('Hmm... Something seems to be missing');
      }
    }
      function getPosition() {
          navigator.geolocation.getPosition(updatePosition);
      }

      function updatePosition (position) {
          vm.location.lattitude = position.coords.lattitude;
          vm.location.longitutde = position.coords.longitude;
      }

      getPosition();

     ....

I think it has something to do with how I am getting the coordinates now. My browser prompts me for permission to use my location, so I am at least requesting the data. However, I changed my User Schema to save the lat and long and neither of these values are being saved upon success.

Answer 1

I found my error. I did need to include the Geolocation API to get the users coordinates. I then just saved the coordinates to the database and am using mongo's geo service from there! Everything works fine now.