Populate values from different Models - Mongoose/MongoDB Collections - NodeJS

Question

I have two main Schema in my project, Store, and User.

• User collection as displayed in MongoDB Compass is the following :

   _id : ObjectId("**5e830006c4cec2586875124b**") hearts : Array storeID : Array email : "test@test.com" name : "My name is Test" photo : "fa75fa97-c5d8-4e63-a9ee-38441774a26e.jpeg" slugAuthor : "my-name-is-test" description : "My description is Test" hash : "b841b82dcffdd0d517b5010d9ff2047ab447751a4e6dd573f9d55af..." salt : "2bb0f785b134af11d7ca08d4086801fd880626498fbcf106c0df9a66" __v : 0

• Store collection as displayed in MongoDB Compass is the following :

   _id : ObjectId("5e830050c4cec2586875124c") tags : Array name : "My activity is Test" description : "My description us Test" participants : 1 duree : 1 date : 2220-02-22T21:02:00.000+00:00 author : ObjectId("**5e830006c4cec2586875124b**") created : 2020-03-31T08:33:20.234+00:00 slug : "my-activity-is-test" __v : 0

What I need :

When I display the user information, I also want to search every Store he has created.
As you can see, the User id is found in the Store collection (author: ObjectId).

I need to display those information (User + list of stores that belongs to the User) when I hit the route http://..../store/my-name-is-test/5e830006c4cec2586875124b . In my route, I need to display as a slug the "slugAuthor" and the "author: ObjectId". (this is already managed).

What I have already tried (using .populate()) :

In my Store Schema :

author: {
        type: mongoose.Schema.ObjectId,
        ref: 'User', 
    }

In my User Schema :

listStores: [{
    type: mongoose.Schema.ObjectId,
    ref: 'Store'}], 

In my controller:

exports.myProfil = async (req, res) => {
        const user = await User.findOne({slugAuthor: req.params.slugAuthor}).populate('listStores') 
        res.render('my-profil', {user}); 
    };  

It gives me access to the following data :

{
  "hearts": [],
  "listStores": [],
  "_id": "5e830006c4cec2586875124b",
  "email": "test@test.com",
  "name": "My name is Test",
  "photo": "fa75fa97-c5d8-4e63-a9ee-38441774a26e.jpeg",
  "slugAuthor": "my-name-is-test",
  "description": "My description is Test",
  "__v": 0
}

As you can see, "listStores" array is empty but I need it to be filled with every stores created by this user.

Would you please be kind enough to help me out here,
Many thanks

Answer 1

You can use aggregation for that. Take a look at the lookup

   $lookup:
     {
       from: 'Store',
       localField: _id, // the _id of the user
       foreignField: author,
       as: "listStores" // this might be something else
     }

In this case instead of find you have to use User.aggregate

Hope this helps!