Mongoose

FAQ

Q. Why don't my changes to arrays get saved when I update an element directly?

doc.array[3] = 'changed';
doc.save();

A. Mongoose doesn't create getters/setters for array indexes; without them mongoose never gets notified of the change and so doesn't know to persist the new value. The work-around is to use MongooseArray#set available in Mongoose >= 3.2.0.

// 3.2.0
doc.array.set(3, 'changed');
doc.save();

// if running a version less than 3.2.0, you must mark the array modified before saving.
doc.array[3] = 'changed';
doc.markModified('array');
doc.save();

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Q. Why don't in-place modifications to date objects (e.g. date.setMonth(1);) get saved?

doc.createdAt.setDate(2011, 5, 1);
doc.save(); // createdAt changes won't get saved!

A. Mongoose currently doesn't watch for in-place updates to date objects. If you have need for this feature, feel free to discuss on this GitHub issue. There are several workarounds:

doc.createdAt.setDate(2011, 5, 1);
doc.markModified('createdAt');
doc.save(); // Works

doc.createdAt = new Date(2011, 5, 1).setHours(4);
doc.save(); // Works

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Q. How can I enable debugging?

A. Set the debug option to true:

mongoose.set('debug', true)

All executed collection methods will log output of their arguments to your console.

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Q. My save() callback never executes. What am I doing wrong?

A. All collection actions (insert, remove, queries, etc) are queued until the connection opens. It is likely that an error occurred while attempting to connect. Try adding an error handler to your connection.

// if connecting on the default mongoose connection
mongoose.connect(..);
mongoose.connection.on('error', handleError);

// if connecting on a separate connection
var conn = mongoose.createConnection(..);
conn.on('error', handleError);

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Q. Should I create/destroy a new connection for each database operation?

A. No. Open your connection when your application starts up and leave it open until the application shuts down.

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Q. Why do I get "OverwriteModelError: Cannot overwrite .. model once compiled" when I use nodemon / a testing framework?

A. mongoose.model('ModelName', schema) requires 'ModelName' to be unique, so you can access the model by using mongoose.model('ModelName'). If you put mongoose.model('ModelName', schema); in a mocha beforeEach() hook, this code will attempt to create a new model named 'ModelName' before every test, and so you will get an error. Make sure you only create a new model with a given name once. If you need to create multiple models with the same name, create a new connection and bind the model to the connection.

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var connection = mongoose.createConnection(..);

// use mongoose.Schema
var kittySchema = mongoose.Schema({ name: String });

// use connection.model
var Kitten = connection.model('Kitten', kittySchema);

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