Mongoose: reference between models with same schema keys - mongodb

Question

As a front-end developer, I would like to have some isomorphic object for two mongoose models.
Let's say I have a user profile:
const profileSchema = new Schema({
firstName: { type: String },
lastName: { type: String },
// example of difference between model schemas
__user: { type: ObjectId, ref: 'Users' },
}
And I would like to create a list of Contact, where each contact will have some of the same keys:
const contactSchema = new Schema({
firstName: { type: String },
lastName: { type: String },
__profile: {
type: ObjectId,
ref: 'Profiles',
unique: true,
},
comment: { type: String },
}
NOTE: Contact could be the both:
as a reference to the Profile
and as independent record in DB / document.
==============================
My question: which is the best way to, organize models on such a way, so
contact could be a reference to the profile
when similar Profile key, like firstName will be updated, contact firstName will be updated too
AVOID of next ref
await Contact.findById(SOME_ID).populate('__profile');
// result
{
firstName: '',
lastName: '',
__profile: {
firstName: 'Chuck',
lastName: 'Norris',
}
}
Desired result - keep contact "isomorphic" like:
{
firstName: 'Chuck', // the key value from profile
lastName: 'Norris', // the key value from profile
__profile: SOME_PROFILE_ID,
}
Is this possible?
P.S: in my app, I'm using refs and started to use discriminators approaches.

Answer 1

I'd approach this task either:
1) put all data inside 1 collection (e.g. Profile):
// Profile model
{
firstName: 'Chuck',
lastName: 'Norris',
contacts: [{
type: ObjectId,
ref: 'Profile',
unique: true,
}],
...all other properties
}
that way you will be able to store just contacts (e.g. when I want to add just a contact) and profiles with much more info.
2) or will use discriminators to create a base class (e.g. Contact) and build Profile model upon it:
const options = { discriminatorKey: 'userType' };
const Contact = mongoose.model('Contact', new mongoose.Schema({
firstName: String,
lastName: String
},
options)
)
const Profile = Contact.discriminator(
'Profile',
new mongoose.Schema(
{
contacts: [{
type: ObjectId,
ref: 'Contact',
unique: true,
}],
comments: []
},
options
)
);
that way you will be able to save Contacts and Profiles inside 1 collection and reference base class (Contact) for contacts inside Profile
Hope that helps!

Answer 2

In my case, complete usage of Mongoose discriminators did not give me an advantage, because discriminators give you an opportunity to:
They enable you to have multiple models with overlapping schemas on
top of the same underlying MongoDB collection.
As a result, by using discriminators approach, I will reive one collection
of:
profiles
And there will be a mix of users and contact profiles.
==============================
So I decided to use two approaches:
create BesaSchema for the profile
take advantage of Mongoose Subdocuments
RESULT:
// keys which are same for both user Profile and Contact
const Schema = require('mongoose').Schema;
const util = require('util');
function BaseProfileSchema(...args) {
Schema.apply(this, args);
this.add({
firstName: { type: String },
lastName: { type: String },
});
}
util.inherits(BaseProfileSchema, Schema);
// user Profile Model
const profileSchema = new BaseProfileSchema({
__user: {
type: String,
ref: 'users',
required: true,
unique: true,
},
});
const Profile = mongoose.model('profiles', profileSchema);
// Contact with profile as subdocument
const contactProfileSchema = new BaseProfileSchema();
const contactSchema = new Schema({
// Associations
__refProfile: {
type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref: 'profiles',
index: {
unique: true,
sparse: true,
},
},
profile: contactProfileSchema,
});
const Contact = mongoose.model('contacts', contactSchema);
As a result, I'm having DB with next collections:
users
profiles
contacts
Both profiles and contacts.profile are IDENTICAL because I'm extending the base shared schema.
Moreover:
inside Contact I'm having different keys for real referenced profile (__refProfile which can NOT be edit by others) and contact.profile
profile inside connection can be edited ONLY when the contact was edited by itself
P.S: happy codding 👨‍💻🍻