why an empty array when I do an app.get()? - mongodb

Question

So I have a mongodb database to which I have imported some json data to its collection.
When I do a db.posts.find(), the data imported successfully, but when I attempt a get request, I get an empty array [].
Here is my server.js file:
'use strict';
const express = require('express');
const morgan = require('morgan');
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.Promise = global.Promise;
const { DATABASE_URL, PORT } = require('./config');
const { BlogPost } = require('./models');
const app = express();
app.use(morgan('common'));
app.use(express.json());
app.get('/posts', (req, res) => {
BlogPost
.find()
.then(posts => {
res.json(posts.map(post => post.serialize()));
})
.catch(err => {
console.error(err);
res.status(500).json({ error: 'something went terribly wrong' });
});
});
app.get('/posts/:id', (req, res) => {
BlogPost
.findById(req.params.id)
.then(post => res.json(post.serialize()))
.catch(err => {
console.error(err);
res.status(500).json({ error: 'something went horribly awry' });
});
});
app.post('/posts', (req, res) => {
const requiredFields = ['title', 'content', 'author'];
for (let i = 0; i < requiredFields.length; i++) {
const field = requiredFields[i];
if (!(field in req.body)) {
const message = `Missing \`${field}\` in request body`;
console.error(message);
return res.status(400).send(message);
}
}
BlogPost
.create({
title: req.body.title,
content: req.body.content,
author: req.body.author
})
.then(blogPost => res.status(201).json(blogPost.serialize()))
.catch(err => {
console.error(err);
res.status(500).json({ error: 'Something went wrong' });
});
});
app.delete('/posts/:id', (req, res) => {
BlogPost
.findByIdAndRemove(req.params.id)
.then(() => {
res.status(204).json({ message: 'success' });
})
.catch(err => {
console.error(err);
res.status(500).json({ error: 'something went terribly wrong' });
});
});
app.put('/posts/:id', (req, res) => {
if (!(req.params.id && req.body.id && req.params.id === req.body.id)) {
res.status(400).json({
error: 'Request path id and request body id values must match'
});
}
const updated = {};
const updateableFields = ['title', 'content', 'author'];
updateableFields.forEach(field => {
if (field in req.body) {
updated[field] = req.body[field];
}
});
BlogPost
.findByIdAndUpdate(req.params.id, { $set: updated }, { new: true })
.then(updatedPost => res.status(204).end())
.catch(err => res.status(500).json({ message: 'Something went wrong' }));
});
app.delete('/:id', (req, res) => {
BlogPost
.findByIdAndRemove(req.params.id)
.then(() => {
console.log(`Deleted blog post with id \`${req.params.id}\``);
res.status(204).end();
});
});
app.use('*', function (req, res) {
res.status(404).json({ message: 'Yo stupido, Not Found' });
});
// closeServer needs access to a server object, but that only
// gets created when `runServer` runs, so we declare `server` here
// and then assign a value to it in run
let server;
// this function connects to our database, then starts the server
function runServer(databaseUrl, port = PORT) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
mongoose.connect(databaseUrl, err => {
if (err) {
return reject(err);
}
server = app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Your app is listening on port ${port}`);
resolve();
})
.on('error', err => {
mongoose.disconnect();
reject(err);
});
});
});
}
// this function closes the server, and returns a promise. we'll
// use it in our integration tests later.
function closeServer() {
return mongoose.disconnect().then(() => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
console.log('Closing server');
server.close(err => {
if (err) {
return reject(err);
}
resolve();
});
});
});
}
// if server.js is called directly (aka, with `node server.js`), this block
// runs. but we also export the runServer command so other code (for instance, test code) can start the server as needed.
if (require.main === module) {
runServer(DATABASE_URL).catch(err => console.error(err));
}
module.exports = { runServer, app, closeServer };
and here is my config.js file:
'use strict';
exports.DATABASE_URL =
process.env.DATABASE_URL || 'mongodb://localhost/seed_data';
exports.PORT = process.env.PORT || 8080;
In my models.js file, this is what my mongoose model looks like:
'use strict';
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.Promise = global.Promise;
const blogPostSchema = mongoose.Schema({
author: {
firstName: String,
lastName: String
},
title: {type: String, required: true},
content: {type: String},
created: {type: Date, default: Date.now}
});
blogPostSchema.virtual('authorName').get(function() {
return `${this.author.firstName} ${this.author.lastName}`.trim();
});
blogPostSchema.methods.serialize = function() {
return {
id: this._id,
author: this.authorName,
content: this.content,
title: this.title,
created: this.created
};
};
const BlogPost = mongoose.model('BlogPost', blogPostSchema);
module.exports = {BlogPost};

Answer 1

The issue is with your first parameter in your mongoose.model(). Since you shared that the collection name is posts, that should be the name of your first parameter as a string 'posts'.
Checkout this documentation on how to declare collection name and model name:
How to declare collection name and model name in mongoose
So your mongoose.model() should look like this:
const BlogPost = mongoose.model('posts', blogPostSchema);
Give that a try.