Mongoose: deep population (populate a populated field)

Question

I have Category model:

Category:
    ...
    articles: [{type:ObjectId, ref:\'Article\'}]

Article model contains ref to

Answer 1

Easiest way to accomplish this in 3.6 is to use Model.populate.

User.findById(user.id).select('-salt -hashedPassword').populate('favorites.things').exec(function(err, user){
    if ( err ) return res.json(400, err);

    Thing.populate(user.favorites.things, {
        path: 'creator'
        , select: '-salt -hashedPassword'
    }, function(err, things){
        if ( err ) return res.json(400, err);

        user.favorites.things = things;

        res.send(user.favorites);
    });
});