Sailsjs add one to many association to a model during beforeCreate - sails.js

Question

I am trying to give a default association from a user to a pet, whenever a new User created.
Model:: User.js
var User = {
attributes: {
name: {type: 'string'},
// Add a One Way Relation to pet model
pets: {
collection: 'pet'
},
},
/*** This did not work ***/
beforeCreate: function (user, next) {
var defaultPet = {name: 'Default Pet 1'};
Pet.find(defaultPet).exec(function(err, pet) {
user.name = "BEFORECREATE",
user.pets = pet[0].id;
next();
});
},
}
module.exports = User;
However when a new record is created the user.pet is [ ], but user.name is changed to "BEFORECREATE".
How do I get user.pets = [{name: 'Default Pet 1'}] automatically for the new user created?
Or is there a better place for setting such defaults?
----- UPDATE: More info
I am using sails-disk currently.
Model: Pet.js
module.exports = {
attributes: {
name: {
type: 'string',
required: true
}
}
};

Answer 1

You can't add associations to a model in a lifecycle callback like beforeCreate. Currently, Waterline looks for and processes "nested models" like these before lifecycle callbacks run, so by the time beforeCreate is called it's too late. The simplest solution would be to create a User.createUser class method that wraps the logic you want:
createUser: function(data, cb) {
// If there are already pets specified, just use those
if (data.pets) {return User.create(data).exec(cb);}
// Otherwise look up the default pet
Pet.findOne({name:"Default Pet 1"}).exec(function(err,pet) {
// Return in case of error
if (err) {return cb(err);}
// Assuming the default pet exists, attach it
if (pet) {
console.log("SETTING DEFAULT PET", pet.id);
data.pets = [pet.id];
}
// Create the pet
return User.create(data).exec(cb);
});
}
A few notes:
In your example you were setting pets directly to an ID, but since it's a collection you must set it to an array.
If you're using the sails-disk adapter, you'll need to set schema: true in your model for this to work.
The new User model you get back will not be populated; you'll have to do a find with a populate('pets') with the new User ID to get the pet data attached.