MongoDb/Mongoskin - CLEANLY Update entire document w/o specifying properties - mongodb

Question

All the examples I have seen for MongoDb & Mongoskin for update, have individual properties being updated, like so:
// this works when I specify the properties
db.collection('User').update({_id: mongoskin.helper.toObjectID(user._id)},
{'$set':{displayName:user.displayName}}, function(err, result) {
if (err) throw err;
if (result){ res.send(result)}
});
But what if I wanted the whole object/document to be updated instead:
// this does not appear to work
db.collection('User').update({_id: mongoskin.helper.toObjectID(user._id)}, {'$set':user},
function(err, result){
// do something
}
It returns the error:
// It appears Mongo does not like the _id as part of the update
MongoError: After applying the update to the document {_id: ObjectId('.....
To overcome this issue, this is what I had to do to make things work:
function (req, res) {
var userId = req.body.user._id
var user = req.body.user;
delete user._id;
db.collection('User').update({_id: mongoskin.helper.toObjectID(userId)},
{'$set':user}, function(err, result) {
if (err) throw err;
console.log('result: ' + result)
if (result){ res.send(result)}
});
})
It there a more elegant way of updating the whole document, instead of hacking it with:
delete user._id

Answer 1

If you want to update the whole object, you do not need a $set. I am not aware of mongoskin, but in shell you would do something like:
var userObj = {
_id: <something>
...
};
db.user.update({_id: user._id}, user);
Which I think can be translated in your mongoskin in the following way.
db.collection('User').update({_id: user._id}, user, function(){...})
But here is the problem. You can not update _id of the element in Mongo. And this is what your error tells you. So you can remove the _id from your user object and have it separately. Search by this separate _id and update with a user object without _id.