Bdtjtk

I know there are a lot of questions about joins using mongoose but I still can't find what I am looking for hence posting this question. I am used to php/mysql where I would just join tables but mongoose seems to be a whole other beast.

I have a product schema and a user schema.

here is product:

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const Schema = mongoose.Schema;



const productSchema = new Schema({

    title: {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    category: {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    image: {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    description: {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    userId: {

        type: Schema.Types.ObjectId,

        ref: 'User',

        required: true

    },

    address: {

        city: {type: String, required: true }

    },

    createdAt: {

        type: Date,

        default: Date.now

    },

});



module.exports = mongoose.model('Product', productSchema);

And the user:

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const Schema = mongoose.Schema;



const userSchema = new Schema({

    firstName: {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    lastName:  {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    email: {

        type: String,

        required: true,

        index: true,

        unique: true

    },

    contactNo: {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    password:  {

        type: String,

        required: true

    },

    address: {

        city: {type: String, required: true },

    }

});



module.exports = mongoose.model('User', userSchema);

When I as the admin user want to see the users first name and last name for the added product (as well as that product informatioN) I would to 'join' the 'tables' and based on the UserID in the product schema get the first name and last name from the users schema.

I am trying to use .populate here but not sure if it's correct.

exports.getApprove = (req, res, next) => {

    const productId = req.params.productId;

    Product.findById(productId)

    .populate('userId', 'firstName', 'lastName')

    .then(product => {

        res.render('account/approve', {

            pageTitle: 'Approve Listing',

            path: '/accounts/approve',

            product: product

        });

    })

    .catch(err => {

        console.log(err);

    });

};

Edit:

After adding a console.log like below it seems to give me what I am after. But still not sure if I am doing this correctly.

console.log(product.userId.firstName);