Mongoose Model containing arrays - mongodb

Question

First of all, I'm pretty new to MongoDB, Mongoose and Express. I'm trying to create a Mongoose model that has two arrays that I want to populate with multiple objects called itemSchema but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to update the array short of using findOneAndUpdate but since my array is initially empty there is no initial ID until a document is created. With the method that I have defined below - any already existing data in the food array is replaced by a new array. Below is my model -
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const itemSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
id: String,
drinks: [
{
id: String,
name: {
type: String,
required: true
},
price: {
type: String,
required: true
},
description: {
type: String
},
date: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
}
}
],
food: [
{
name: {
type: String,
required: true
},
price: {
type: String,
required: true
},
description: {
type: String
},
date: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
}
}
]
});
module.exports = Item = mongoose.model("item", itemSchema);
I don't know if I'm defining the schema correctly. I know that it isn't very DRY ( since both arrays contain the same types ) but since I believe this is such a simple use case I don't want to define two separate schema for Drink and Food when I could just create one Schema.
router.post("/food", async (req, res) => {
try {
// Create an object from the request that includes the name, price and description
const newItem = {
name: req.body.name,
price: req.body.price,
description: req.body.description
};
// pass the object to the Items model
let item = new Items(newItem);
// add to the comments array
console.log("the new comment ", newItem);
item.food.unshift(newItem);
item.save();
// return the new item array to confirm adding the new item is working.
res.json(item);
} catch (error) {
// Display an error if there is one.
res.send(404).json(error);
}
});
The issue with the approach above comes from how I'm supposed to update the array. I defined the function below to update the food array for example but a new array gets created every single time. I believe that is has to do with not having Id param that I can use to provide the model with the findOneAndUpdate method. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

As per my opinion you can make your schema more simple as in your food and drinks array all the fields are same so you can simply take one more field as itemType and then you do not need to take two separate sub docs for food and drinks.
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const itemSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
id: String,
itemType: { type: String }, // FOOD or DRINK
name: {
type: String,
required: true
},
price: {
type: String,
required: true
},
description: {
type: String
},
date: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
}
});
If you wants to know more about updating in array with findOneAndUpdate() then i will explain two simple task to perform with this function.
CASE:1 If array of your sub doc is empty then you can push new document in your sub doc as below:
var updatedData = await Model.findOneAndUpdate(
{
_id: doc._id
},
{
$push: {
drinks: {
name: drink.name,
price: drink.price,
description: drink.description,
}
},
},{ new: true }
).lean().exec();
CASE:2 If you want to update existing sub doc by sub doc id then you can update as below:
var updatedData = await Model.findOneAndUpdate(
{
'drink._id': drinkId
},
{
$set: {
'drink.$.name': drink.name,
'drink.$.price': drink.price,
'drink.$.description': drink.description,
},
},{ new: true }
).lean().exec();