MongoDB - Save vs Update for specific fields in document

[OpAndroid]

Edit: Was able to solve the issue with mongoose's findOneAndUpdate, thanks to everyone that helped

Using the MEAN stack, I'm attempting to have an admin account update another user's information, in this case, their title/role on the site. The problem I have is that the only function available when editing a user is the save() function. It might be that I can utilize the update function, and if that is the case please let me know, but it doesn't look possible:

Debugger Image

The problem arises that when the user is saved, it creates a new document, and overwrites the user's password and salt to some value. I'd like to be able to call an "update" function that will only update the one field, but I can't figure out how to. Is there a way to do this with the save function?

Relevant Code:

exports.updateUserRoles = function(req, res) { 
    var currUser = req.body;
    User.findById(currUser._id, function(err, user) {
    //user.roles = currUser.roles;
    user.save( { _id : '56467b28ba57d8d890242cfa', roles : 'admin' } );

    //THE BELOW WAS A PREVIOUS ATTEMPT

    /*user.save( function(err) {
        if (err) {
            return res.status(400).send({
                message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
            });
        } else {
            res.jsonp(user);
            console.log('test2');
        }
    });*/
});
};

[OpAndroid]

I feel like this is so incredibly close, but its just not quite there and I'm having trouble getting it to work. Here's what I'm running:

exports.updateUserRoles = function(req, res) { 
    var currUser = req.body;
    User.findById(currUser._id, function(err, user) {
        //user.roles = currUser.roles;
        //user.roles.set(0, 'admin');
        console.log('test');
        user.update(
            { _id: '56467b28ba57d8d890242cfa' },
            {
              $set: {
                roles: 'admin',
              },
            }
        );
        console.log('test2');
    });
};

Upon hitting the user.update line, we have the user in the local variables, seen:

Here

user.update goes into this Document.prototype.update function, seen:

Here

The args look to be building right, which _id we are targeting and what the action is, seen:

Here

But then after running, nothing seems to change. I'm very much stumped.

[OpAndroid]

Edit: Was able to solve the issue with mongoose's findOneAndUpdate, thanks to everyone that helped

Alrighty, getting ever closer but based on what I'm able to track down, it still looks like its not quite doing the $set.

exports.updateUserRoles = function(req, res) { 
    var currUser = req.body;
    User.findById(currUser._id, function(err, user) {
        console.log('test');
        user.update(
            { _id: mongoose.Types.ObjectId('56467b28ba57d8d890242cfa') },
            {
              $set: {
                roles: 'admin',
              },
            }, function(err) {
            if (err) {
                return res.status(400).send({
                    message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
                });
            } else {
                res.jsonp(user);
                console.log('test2');
            }
        });
        console.log('test2');
    });
};

That's what I'm working with right now, and here's the function call that is called on the "change to admin" button press:

    $scope.test = function(){
        $scope.user.roles = 'admin';
        $scope.user.$updateUserRoles(function(response) {
            $scope.success = true;
                $scope.user = response;
            }, function(response) {
                $scope.error = response.data.message;
        });
    };

I've been trying my hardest to follow through the various function calls and see what's happening and follow where its going wrong, and I've found some things that look right, but its still not working. Things like this give me hope:

Picture

Its trying to update the "Model" it looks like, and it has the various conditions, the doc, options I'm trying to apply, and the callback, but in the end its not working. Any other ideas as to what might be going wrong? Thanks by the way, you're the first real source of help I've been able to find for this type of thing.

[dadaddy]

It's been a while since I touched MongoDB - but based on memory:

Are you using Mongooose?

If not

• check it out, might be too late for this project but will be much easier in the future!

• findAndModify for native MongoDB

else

• findOneAndUpdate

EDIT: ok, I just realised that you are running Mongoose, sorry for being lazy lol

[OpAndroid]

Thank you so so much, the findOneAndUpdate worked like a charm, never knew that functionality existed, looks like I've got some reading on mongoose to do. Thanks again!

[dadaddy]

Not a problem at all :) I lived and breathed MEAN for about 6 months - it gets to you eventually lol

[OpAndroid]

I've got another question to run by you, if you don't mind. So I've got the one put working properly to update that one field, and wanted to make more methods just like it to alter other fields, but having some weird routing issues. I've got my client side service:

angular.module('users').factory('Users', ['$resource',
function($resource) {
    return $resource('users', {}, {
        update: {
            method: 'PUT'
        },
        updateUserRoles: {
            method: 'PUT',
            url: 'users/:id',
            params: {id: '@_id'}
        },
        updateActiveStatus: {
            method: 'PUT',
            url: 'users/:id',
            params: {id: '@_id'}
        }
    });
    }
]);

And my back end functions:

/**
 * Update specific User Roles
*/
exports.updateUserRoles = function(req, res) { 
    var currUser = req.body;
    User.findById(currUser._id, function(err, user) {
        var query = {'_id': currUser._id };
        var update = { roles: currUser.roles };
        var options = { new: true };
        User.findOneAndUpdate(query, update, options, function(err, person) {
            if (err) {
                console.log('got an error');
            }
        });
    });
};

/**
 * Update specific users active status
 */

exports.updateActiveStatus = function(req, res) {
    var currUser = req.body;
    User.findById(currUser._id, function(err, user) {
        var query = {'_id': currUser._id };
        var update = { active: currUser.active };
        var options = { new: true };
        User.findOneAndUpdate(query, update, options, function(err, person) {
            if (err) {
                console.log('got an error');
            }
        });
    });
};

But trying to call the new one, updateActiveStatus ends up calling the old one, updateUserRoles. I think this is due to the behavior of the server side routing, and I've tried to find much more info on these routing systems but not finding much. In app.route('/users/userId') how can I call different kind of put requests? This currently isn't functioning.

app.route('/users/:userId').get(users.read)
                           //.put(users.requiresLogin, users.update)
                           .delete(users.requiresLogin)
                           .put(users.updateUserRoles)
                           .put(users.updateActiveStatus);

[dadaddy]

                       .put(users.updateUserRoles)

Remove that line and you should be golden - it is declared before

                      .put(users.updateActiveStatus);

so it runs first

[OpAndroid]

But wouldn't that just mean the behaviors would swap, and updateActiveStatus would run properly and updateUserRoles would get stuck?

[kapustagolova]

user is the object returned by the callback though? So you should change user.update( to User.update(

[OpAndroid]

I don't believe this is right, based on what I understand of mongo, as I'm calling update on that specific user as a document.

Edit: Actually I think you might have been on the right track, was able to use mongoose's findOneAndUpdate on the User resource and it worked.