node.js - How to set ObjectId as a data type in mongoose

Question

Using node.js, mongodb on mongoHQ and mongoose. I'm setting a schema for Categories. I would like to use the document ObjectId as my categoryId.

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

var Schema = mongoose.Schema,
    ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId;
var Schema_Category = new Schema({
    categoryId  : ObjectId,
    title       : String,
    sortIndex   : String
});

I then run

var Category = mongoose.model('Schema_Category');
var category = new Category();
category.title = "Bicycles";
category.sortIndex = "3";

category.save(function(err) {
  if (err) { throw err; }
  console.log('saved');
  mongoose.disconnect();     
});

Notice that I don't provide a value for categoryId. I assumed mongoose will use the schema to generate it but the document has the usual "_id" and not "categoryId". What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Unlike traditional RBDMs, mongoDB doesn't allow you to define any random field as the primary key, the _id field MUST exist for all standard documents.

For this reason, it doesn't make sense to create a separate uuid field.

In mongoose, the ObjectId type is used not to create a new uuid, rather it is mostly used to reference other documents.

Here is an example:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

var Schema = mongoose.Schema,
    ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId;
var Schema_Product = new Schema({
    categoryId  : ObjectId, // a product references a category _id with type ObjectId
    title       : String,
    price       : Number
});

As you can see, it wouldn't make much sense to populate categoryId with a ObjectId.

However, if you do want a nicely named uuid field, mongoose provides virtual properties that allow you to proxy (reference) a field.

Check it out:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

var Schema = mongoose.Schema,
    ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId;
var Schema_Category = new Schema({
    title       : String,
    sortIndex   : String
});

Schema_Category.virtual('categoryId').get(function() {
    return this._id;
});

So now, whenever you call category.categoryId, mongoose just returns the _id instead.

You can also create a "set" method so that you can set virtual properties, check out this link for more info