Mongoose - using Populate on an array of ObjectId

Question

I\'ve got a schema that looks a bit like:

var conversationSchema = new Schema({
    created: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    updated: { type: Date, de         


        

Answer 1

For anyone else coming across this question.. the OP's code has an error in the schema definition.. it should be:

var conversationSchema = new Schema({
    created: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    updated: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    recipients: [{ type: Schema.ObjectId, ref: 'User' }],
    messages: [ conversationMessageSchema ]
});
mongoose.model('Conversation', conversationSchema);

Answer 2

Use the name of the schema path instead of the collection name:

Conversation.findOne({ _id: myConversationId})
.populate('recipients') // <==
.exec(function(err, conversation){
    //do stuff
});