Mongoose populate sub-sub document

Question

I have this setup in my MongoDB

Items:

title: String
comments: [] // of objectId\'s

Comments:

user: ObjectId()
item: Ob         


        

Answer 1

To populate sub-sub document and populate from multiple schemas

ProjectMetadata.findOne({id:req.params.prjId})
.populate({
    path:'tasks',
    model:'task_metadata',
    populate:{
        path:'assigned_to',
        model:'users',
        select:'name employee_id -_id' // to select fields and remove _id field

    }
})
.populate({
    path:'client',
    model:'client'
})
.populate({
    path:'prjct_mgr',
    model:'users'
})
.populate({
    path:'acc_exec',
    model:'users'
})
.populate({
    path:'prj_type',
    model:'project_type'
}).then ( // .. your thing

or you can do it in following manner ..

   ProjectMetadata.findOne({id:req.params.prjId})
    .populate(
        [{
        path:'tasks',
        model:TaskMetadata,
        populate:[{
            path:'assigned_to',
            model:User,
            select:'name employee_id'
        },
        {
            path:'priority',
            model:Priority,
            select:'id title'
        }],
        select:"task_name id code assign_to stage priority_id"
    },
    {
        path:'client',
        model:Client,
        select:"client_name"
    },
    {
        path:'prjct_mgr',
        model:User,
        select:"name"
    },
    {
        path:'acc_exec',
        model:User,
        select:'name employee_id'
    },
    {
        path:'poc',
        model:User,
        select:'name employee_id'
    },
    {
        path:'prj_type',
        model:ProjectType,
        select:"type -_id"
    }

])

I found the second method (of using array) more useful when I had to get multiple sub-sub documents of same parent.