Populate a mongoose model with a field that isn't an id

Question

Is it possible to populate a mongoose model with a field of a reference model that isn\'t the _id ... e.g. a username.

so something like

var personSc         


        

Answer 1

This is an example of using the $lookup aggregate to populate a model called Invite with the respective User based on the corresponding email field:

  Invite.aggregate(
      { $match: {interview: req.params.interview}},
      { $lookup: {from: 'users', localField: 'email', foreignField: 'email', as: 'user'} }
    ).exec( function (err, invites) {
      if (err) {
        next(err);
      }

      res.json(invites);
    }
  );

It's probably quite similar to what you're trying to do.