mongoose virtual attribute not populating in some cases where populate() is used

Question

I'm trying to populate the job.creator and use the virtual attribute from the User object (user.profile) to give only public information for the job creator.

/**
 * User Schema
 */
var UserSchema = new Schema({
    favorites: {
        jobs: [{ type: Schema.ObjectId, ref: 'Job', index: true }]
    }
});

// Public profile information
UserSchema
.virtual('profile')
.get(function () {
    return {
        favorites: this.favorites,
        profileImageUrls: this.profileImageUrls //also not being populated
    };
});


UserSchema
.virtual('profileImageUrls')
.get(function(){
    var  defaultUrl = cfg.home + '/images/cache/default-profile-img.png'
        , smallUrl = cfg.home + '/images/cache/default-profile-img-small.png';

    return {
        small: smallUrl
        , default: defaultUrl
    };
});


/**
 * Job Schema
 */
var JobSchema = new Schema({
    creator: { type: Schema.ObjectId, ref: 'User', index: true, required: true },
});

When I try to get the virtual attribute .profile from the job.creator object, I am missing some values:

//controller
Job.populate(job, { path: 'creator', select: '-salt -hashedPassword' }, function(err, job){
    if ( job.creator ) {
        job.creator = job.creator.profile; //this is missing some attributes
    }

    return res.json(job);
})


{
    //...
    creator: {
        favorites: {
            jobs: [ ] //this is not being populated
        }
    }
}

Its also missing job.creator.profileImageUrls which is a virtual attribute off the User object.

Answer 1

I'd recommend not doing the job.creator = job.creator.profile line, that doesn't really jibe well with how Mongoose works. Also, where is profileImageUrls coming from? Doesn't seem to be in the schema.

Answer 2

I don't know if this is desirable, but I got it working with the following:

_.each(jobs, function(job, i){
    if ( job.creator ) {
        job._doc.creator = job.creator.profile;
    }
});

res.json(jobs);