Unable to receive published Collection from Meteor server side

Question

Here is my problem

I have declared my Collection outside MeteorisServer and MeteorisClient wrappers.

var Items = new Meteor.Collection("items");

I then insert my Items Collection with array x and array z.

Items.insert({
             owner: x,
             post_id: z,
             draft: true
           });

When console.log(Items.find().fetch()) is outputted onto the screen server side I see this in the command line.

Server

 { owner:                                                                                                                                                                                                                
   [ 'Sneaker of the Week: \n\nThe women\'s Roshe Flyknit multi-color arrives soon. #roshe http://t.co/1Zfothclmz\n',    

     'Sneaker of the Week:\n\nThe men\'s Roshe Flyknit is now available: http://t.co/frqNCZQbS5 #roshe http://t.co/HOAbnKFUDZ\n',   

       'Modern comfort. The men\'s Roshe Flyknit is now available: http://t.co/zwTWPMpyYK #roshe http://t.co/l7ZLm67sNC\n',     

       'A full-fledged phenomenon, her destiny is to change tennis and the culture, one fallen rival at a time. #techpack http://t.co/TksxyQTUpr\n',                                                                      
    'Her youth conceals an aggressive game of precise strikes and high-tempo performances. #techpack http://t.co/khqgKdZsfv\n',       

      'Always ready, Genie Bouchard is steady crafting her legacy on the tennis court. #techpack http://t.co/U3WTP6Arax\n',                                                                                              
       'Sneaker of the Week:\n\nThe men\'s Dunk CMFT is now available: http://t.co/WFFCBNxICZ http://t.co/OByzzLLdlL\n' ],     


post_id:                                                                                                                                                                                                              
   [ 'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-f5AF0IcAAQkZY.jpg',                                                                                                                                                                  
   'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-eHJ8tIIAAFUgO.jpg',                                                                                                                                                                  
     'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-TZZx7IIAAH9EH.jpg',                                                                                                                                                                  
      'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-PBNPkCQAAJq0w.jpg',                                                                                                                                                                  
    'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-O_zjaCUAEb6Fj.jpg',                                                                                                                                                                  
    'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-O9HhQCAAAIxHM.jpg',                                                                                                                                                                  
    'http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-ApJnQIgAQisgR.jpg' ],                                                                                                                                                                
   draft: true,                                                                                                                                                                                                          
   _id: '3GW4oqzNHZw9p6yLQ' },              

I then publish this on the server side

// Publish the logged in user's posts
Meteor.publish("posts-recent", function () {
  return Items.find({ owner: x });
});

Client

To then receive it on the client-side.

Meteor.subscribe('posts-recent');
var newItems = Items.find();
console.log(newItems);

Console

Unfortunately this just outputs an a reference to an empty collection declared at the start of the file. My client-side just doesn't seem to be able to receive this data at all. Also when I search for Items in the console inspector I am told it is undefined. So does anyone have any idea if there is any issue with the way I use publish and subscribe?

Answer 1

Meteor.subscribe is a client-side API and as such, it's asynchronous because client code can't block the main thread until your data makes its way to the browser.

Try using this workaround code introducing a callback that will fire when the subscription will be marked as ready :

Meteor.subscribe('posts-recent',function(){
  var newItems = Items.find();
  console.log(newItems);
});

This is a common error that beginners with Meteor often face, there are a number of available solutions to make sure your code runs only when subscribed data is available, the most popular one is probably using iron:router with the waitOn subscription option.

You can alternatively store the subscription handle and track when the ready state is activated :

var subHandle=Meteor.subscribe("posts-recent");
Tracker.autorun(function(){
  // this code will run whenever the (reactive) ready method return value changes
  if(subHandle.ready()){
    console.log(Items.find().fetch());
  }
});