What is wrong with this mongo $or query - mongodb

Question

This query works perfectly
{
$or:[{author:this.userId} , {somethingelse:true} ]
}
But when I try:
{
$or:[{author:this.userId} , {sharedwith[this.userId]:true} ]
}
I receive the message
Errors prevented startup:
While processing files with ecmascript (for target os.linux.x86_64): server/main.js:113:43: Unexpected token, expected
, (113:43)
=> Your application has errors. Waiting for file change.
And thats where the comma , in the $or statement is
Help

Answer 1

I guess that you are trying to retrieve all documents for which the current user is the author, or which have been shared with him/her? And therefore that you have structured your documents with a sharedWith field which is a hash map of userId as keys and boolean as value?
Document structure:
{
author: string,
sharedWith: {
<userId1>: boolean
// <userId2>…
}
}
In that case, your MongoDB query should use the dot notation to specify the value of a nested field within sharedWith field:
{
$or: [{
author: string
}, {
"sharedWith.<userId>": boolean
}]
}
To easily create the query with the interpolated value of <userId>, you can use a computed key in your object (ES6 syntax):
{
$or:[{
author: this.userId
} , {
// The query computed key must be in square brackets.
// Specify the field child key using the dot notation within your query.
["sharedwith." + this.userId]: true
}]
}
Or with good old ES5 syntax, similarly to #MichelFloyd's answer:
var query = {
$or: [{
author: this.userId
}]
};
var newCondition = {};
newCondition["sharedWith." + this.userId] = true;
query.$or.push(newCondition);
Note: the above described document structure could conveniently replace the sharedWith hash map by an array (since having a false value for the boolean could simply be replaced by removing the corresponding userId from the array):
{
author: string,
sharedWith: [
<userId1>
// <userId2>…
]
}
In which case the query would simply become:
{
$or:[{
author: this.userId
} , {
// In MongoDB query, the below selector matches either:
// - documents where `sharedWith` value is a string equal to
// the value of `this.userId`, or
// - documents where `sharedWith` value is an array which contains
// an element with the same value as `this.userId`.
sharedwith: this.userId
}]
}

Answer 2

Try building the query as a variable before running it.
let query = { $or: [{ author: this.userId }]};
const sw = sharedwith[this.userId];
query.$or.push({sw: true});
MyCollection.find(query);