Mongoose: Unable To Save Data To Empty Object

Question

Here is my situation:

I have a simple Schema that has an object called commands which I originally set to {} .

commands:{}

When I went to add a document to the database, I looped through a file of commands and added them to the object by doing command["command"] = "blah blah"; . The way I did that is as follows (The code I work is quite old):

Guild.findOne({guildId:serverId}).then(x=>{
  x.commands = {};
  for(let command of Object.values(commandInfo)){
    if(!command.name) continue;
    const getSubs = ()=>{
      const subArray = {};
      if(!command.subCommands) return;
      for(let subs of Object.values(command.subCommands)){
        subArray[subs.name] = {
          access:subs.access,
          disabled:subs.disabled
        }
      }
      x.commands[command.name].subCommands = subArray;
    }
    x.commands[command.name] = {
      access:command.access,
      bounded:command.bounded,
      disabled:command.disabled,
    }
    getSubs();
  }
  console.log("Success!");
  x.save();
});

The commands contain the following (I'll use two commands for my example):

work:{
  access:"All",
  bounded:"A Channel",
  disabled:false
},
profile:{
  access:"All",
  bounded:"Another Channel",
  disabled:false,
  subCommands:{
    bio:{
      access:"All",
      disabled:true
    }
    register:{
      access:"All",
      disabled:false
   }
 }

Fastforwarding to now, I made a config file that is supposed to edit these commands. The code I wrote works perfectly fine; however, Mongoose is unable to save any of the command's changes. Everything else in my Schema works in the config file except anything related to commands.

I know what the problem. Mongoose can't find the command in the Schema and gets confused somehow. And I know I could fix it by adding all of the commands and their properties to the Schema. The only problem with that is it's tedious and is not a clean solution to me adding any new commands. Plus, I have all of the information for the commands in a separate file, so I don't want to rewrite what I already wrote.

My question is: is there a workaround to my problem? I tried setting commands to Schema.Types.Mixed , but that didn't fix it. I also searched all around for something similar but could not find anything.

Here is the full Schema as requested:

const {Schema, model} = require("mongoose");
const settings = require("../utils/settings");

const guildSchema = Schema({
  guildId:String,
  symbols:{
    prefix:{type:String, default:";"},
    currency:{type:String, default:"$"}
  },
  channels:{
    casinoChannels:Array,
    fineChannels:Array
  },
  commands:Schema.Types.Mixed,
  hierarchy:[{
    name:String,
    role:{type:String, default:""},
    members:Array
  }],
  users:[{
    userId:String,
    cash:Number,
    bank:Number,
    items:[{
      name:String, 
      amount:Number
    }],
    timers:{
      work:String,
      crime:String,
      hack:String,
      steal:String,
      daily:String,
      weekly:String,
      marry:String,
      divorce:String,
      idea:String,
      report:String,
      quiz:String
    },
    fine:{
      fineId:String,
      description:String,
      report:String,
      pay:Number
    },
    used:String
  }],
});

guildSchema.virtual("addUser").set(function(id){
  const user = {
    userId:id,
    cash:settings.cash,
    bank:settings.bank
  };

  this.users.push(user);
  return user;
});   

module.exports = model("Servers", guildSchema);

Answer 1

Use findOneAndUpdate to update the existing document in the collection.

let the object that you want to update in "commands" in mongodb be in x variable.

Guild.findOneAndUpdate({guildId : serverId},{commands : x));

The object which you have stored in x variable will directly be updated/replaced with this new data when a match is found.

UPDATE TO NOT COMPLETELY REPLACE EXISTING OBJECT

let guild = Guild.findOne({guildId : serverId});
if(guild){
// guild.commands here will have the existing object. 
// Modify it as required and then use findOneAndUpdate again
}

Answer 2

The solution is quite simple. I took it from this site: https://mongoosejs.com/docs/2.7.x/docs/schematypes.html

To give credit:

Since it is a schema-less type, you can change the value to anything else you like, but Mongoose loses the ability to auto detect/save those changes. To "tell" Mongoose that the value of a Mixed type has changed, call the.markModified(path) method of the document passing the path to the Mixed type you just changed.

So, whenever I update the commands (aka whenever I change the access, bounded, or disabled variables), I would use the mark modified method on the command function. My code is:

guildSchema.virtual("saveCommands").set(function(name){
  if(["access", "bounded", "disabled"].includes(name)) this.markModified('commands');
});