How to create company and branch relationship using Mongoose framework(Mongodb)?

Question

I have a collection in mongo which has all the details for companies.

var companyModel = mongoose.model('company', new Schema({
  name: {type: String},
  address: {type: String},
  state: {type: String},
  city: {type: String},
  phoneNo: {type: Number},
  childsNo: {type: Number},
  poc: {type: Number},
  subscribtion: {type: Number}
}, {versionKey: false}));

from the above data, there are individual companies as well as company branches. Companies and branches have same details, So I want to maintain a single collection but want to differentiate the difference between a company and branch. I have only one level of branch.

After I design a collection, I should be able to find which company have which branch, If there are no branches it should say there are no branches.

Please let know the best design for this?

Answer 1

A one to many relationship from Companies to Branches. Let branches have a reference to their parent company as well.

var companyModel = mongoose.model('company', new Schema({
 ...
 branches : [{type : mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref : 'branch'}]
 ...
});
var branchModel = mongoose.model('branch', new Schema({
 ...
 parent : { type : mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref : 'company' }
 ...
});

The rest is just proper use of the $in operator, which you can find here .

Answer 2

You can achieve this by simply defining the branch schema withing the company schema. However a more cleaner way is to define the branch schema separately, but have it nested within the company schema. Below are both implementations:

First implementation:

var companyModel = mongoose.model('company', new Schema({
  ...
  branches: [{name: String}]
  ..
});

Second implementation (much cleaner in my opinion):

var Branch = new mongoose.Schema({
  name: String
});
var companyModel = mongoose.model('company', new Schema({
  ...
  branches: [Branch]
  ...
});

Either way, you still have your array of branches within the company model.