Database design - saving the entire object to a user or just the id of an object? - mongodb

Question

database noob here using MongoDB, in my program, I have users, and the core of my program are these roadmaps that I display. So, each user can create roadmaps, save others roadmaps, blah blah... Each user has a field named savedRoadmaps and createdRoadmaps which should store the roadmaps. My question is, should I just store the roadmap _ids in the savedRoadmap and createdRoadmaps field or the entire roadmap?
I am asking this because it feels like saving just the _id of the roadmaps can save storage, but it might not come in handy when I have to fetch the data of the user first, then fetch the roadmap using the roadmap ID in the user's savedRoadmap/createdRoadmap field, versus just fetching the user and the savedRoadmap field will already have the roadmap in there.
And btw, is there any sweet and brief database design read out there, please direct me to some if you know any!
For a user, I want it to have a name, email, password, description ofcourse, and also savedRoadmaps and createdRoadmaps. A user can create unlimited roadmaps and also save as much as he or she wants. For a roadmap, I want it to have a name, category, time_completion, author, date, and a roadmap object which will contain the actual json string that I will use d3 to display. Here's my User and Roadmap Schema right now:
const RoadmapSchema = new Schema({
author: {
type: String,
require: false
},
name: {
type: String,
require: true
},
category: {
type: String,
require: true
},
time_completion: {
type: Number,
require: true
},
date: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
},
roadmap: {
type: "object",
require: true
}
});
and User Schema:
const UserSchema = new Schema({
name: {
type: String,
required: true
},
email: {
type: String,
required: true
},
password: {
type: String,
required: true
},
date: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
},
savedRoadmap: {
type: "object",
default: []
},
createdRoadmap: {
type: "object",
default: []
}
});
My question is, inside of the savedRoadmap and createdRoadmap fields of the User schema, should I include just the _id of a roadmap, or should I include the entire json string which represents the roadmap?

Answer 1

There are 3 different data-modeling techniques you can use to design your roadmaps system based on the cardinality of the relationship between users and roadmaps.
In general you need to de-normalize your data model based on the queries that are expected from your application:
One to Few: Embed the N side if the cardinality is one-to-few and there is no need to access the embedded object outside the context of the parent object
One to Many: Use an array of references to the N-side objects if the cardinality is one-to-many or if the N-side objects should stand alone for any reasons
One-to-Squillions: Use a reference to the One-side in the N-side objects if the cardinality is one-to-squillions
And btw, is there any sweet and brief database design read out there,
please direct me to some if you know any!
Rules of Thumb for MongoDB Schema Design: Part 1