Understanding Relationships & Foreign Keys in Mongoose

Question

In MongoDB/Mongoose, how do I define a relationship? I think there are a few ways I\'ve seen, but I\'m not sure I understand the differences or when do I use which. I am using M

Answer 1

I'm still new to Node, Mongoose, and Mongo, but I think I can address at least part of your question. :)

Your current method is the same as I tried doing at first. Basically, it ends up storing it very similarly to this (written in JS, since I don't know CoffeeScript):

var todoListSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    name: String,
    todos: [{
        name: String,
        desc: String,
        dueOn: Date,
        completedOn: Date
    }]
});

I later found this method, which is what I was looking for, and I think what you were intending:

var todoListSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    name: String,
    todos: [{
        type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
        ref: 'Todo' //Edit: I'd put the schema. Silly me.
    }]
});

This stores an array of ObjectIds, which you can then load using Query#populate in Mongoose.

I don't know of the technical implications, but it makes more sense in my brain if I keep them separate, so that's what I'm doing. :)

Edit: Here is a some official docs that might be useful: http://mongoosejs.com/docs/populate.html