Tricky MongoDB search challenge - mongodb

Question

I have a tricky mongoDB problem that I have never encountered.
The Documents:
The documents in my collection have a search object containing named keys and array values. The keys are named after one of eight categorys and the corresponding value is an array containing items from that category.
{
_id: "bRtjhGNQ3eNqTiKWa",
/* */
search :{
usage: ["accounting"],
test: ["knowledgetest", "feedback"]
},
test: {
type:"list",
vals: [
{name:'knowledgetest', showName: 'Wissenstest'},
{name:'feedback', showName: '360 Feedback'},
]
},
usage: {
type:"list",
vals: [
{name:'accounting', showName: 'Accounting'},
]
}
},
{
_id: "7bgvegeKZNXkKzuXs",
/* */
search :{
usage: ["recruiting"],
test: ["intelligence", "feedback"]
},
test: {
type:"list",
vals: [
{name:'intelligence', showName: 'Intelligenztest'},
{name:'feedback', showName: '360 Feedback'},
]
},
usage: {
type:"list",
vals: [
{name:'recruiting', showName: 'Recruiting'},
]
}
},
The Query
The query is an object containing the same category - keys and array - values.
{
usage: ["accounting", "assessment"],
test : ["feedback"]
}
The desired outcome
If the query is empty, I want all documents.
If the query has one category and any number of items, I want all the documents that have all of the items in the specified category.
If the query has more then one category, I want all the documents that have all of the items in all of the specified categorys.
My tries
I tried all kinds of variations of:
XX.find({
'search': {
"$elemMatch": {
'tool': {
"$in" : ['feedback']
}
}
}
No success.
EDIT
Tried: 'search.test': {$all: (query.test ? query.test : [])} which gives me no results if I have nothing selected; the right documents when I am only looking inside the test category; and nothing when I additionally look inside the usage category.
This is at the heart of my app, thus I historically put up a bounty.

Answer 1

let tools = []
const search = {}
for (var q in query) {
if (query.hasOwnProperty(q)) {
if (query[q]) {
search['search.'+q] = {$all: query[q] }
}
}
}
if (Object.keys(query).length > 0) {
tools = ToolsCollection.find(search).fetch()
} else {
tools = ToolsCollection.find({}).fetch()
}
Works like a charm

Answer 2

What I already hinted at in the comment: your document structure does not support efficient and simple searching. I can only guess the reason, but I suspect that you stick to some relational ideas like "schemas" or "normalization" which just don't make sense for a document database.
Without digging deeper into the problem of modeling, I could imagine something like this for your case:
{
_id: "bRtjhGNQ3eNqTiKWa",
/* */
search :{
usage: ["accounting"],
test: ["knowledgetest", "feedback"]
},
test: {
"knowledgetest" : {
"showName": "Wissenstest"
},
"feedback" : {
"showName": "360 Feedback"
}
},
usage: {
"accounting" : {
"values" : [ "knowledgetest", "feedback" ],
"showName" : "Accounting"
}
}
},
{
_id: "7bgvegeKZNXkKzuXs",
/* */
search : {
usage: ["recruiting"],
test: ["intelligence", "feedback"]
},
test: {
"intelligence" : {
showName: 'Intelligenztest'
},
"feedback" : {
showName: '360 Feedback'
}
},
usage: {
"recruiting" : {
"values" : [ "intelligence", "feedback" ],
"showName" : "Recruiting"
}
}
}
Then, a search for "knowledgetest" and "feedback" in "accounting" would be a simple
{ "usage.accounting.values" : { $all : [ "knowledgetest", "feedback"] } }
which can easily be used multiple times in an and condition:
{
{ "usage.accounting.values" : { $all : [ "knowledgetest", "feedback"] } },
{ "usage.anothercategory.values" : { $all [ "knowledgetest", "assessment" ] } }
}
Even the zero-times-case matches your search requirements, because an and-filter with none of these criteria yields {} which is the find-everything filter expression.
Once more, to make it absolutely clear: when using mongo, forget everything you know as "best practice" from the relational world. What you need to consider is: what are your queries, and how can my document model support these queries in an ideal way.