Loopback and MongoDB Embedded Documents Defining JSON Model - mongodb

Question

Can / how do you define an embedded document in a model's json definition with LoopbackJS without creating a model to represent the sub-document?
For example, consider this following MongoDB document:
{
_id: ObjectId("some_mongodb_id"),
subDocs: [
{
"propertyA": "a1",
"propertyB": "b1"
},
{
"propertyA": "a2",
"propertyB": "b2"
}
]
}
I could create two models in loopback:
some-model.json:
...
"properties": {
"subDocs": [
"SubDocsModel"
]
}
sub-docs-model.json:
...
"properties": {
"propertyA": "string",
"propertyB": "string"
}
Rather than doing that, however, I'd like to just declare the sub-doc model inline in the some-model.json since it's just there to document the shape of some-model's document.
Is that possible? Something like:
some-model.json:
...
"properties":{
"subDocs": [
{
"propertyA": {
"type": "string"
},
"propertyB": {
"type": "string"
}
}
]
}
I tried the above, but what I end up with is a field in my mongodb document that's of type string with the value [object Object]...
The purpose would be (1) to document the shape of the sub-document, and (2) to allow for validation by loopback without adding custom logic.

Answer 1

You can define it as an object
some-model.json:
"properties": {
"subDocs": ["object"]
}
But if you want validation or have a structure for sub-docs, you need to create a loopback model for that.
Loopback does not do any validation, ... for properties with type object.