How to access model attributes of different controller in Sails.js?

Question

I have two controllers/models in my Sails project which is Clubs and Members. One club can have many members.

I try to put the id of 'Clubs' as a reference id (like a foreign key) in 'Members', so that I can retrieve the members of a club by using the reference id in 'Members'. I want to display the members according to their clubs at the homepage. However I could not find a way to pass the id value of 'Clubs' to the 'Members' controller. Below are some of the codes:

Clubs.js

module.exports = {

  attributes: {

    clubName: {
      type: 'string',
    },

    clubDesc: {
      type: 'string',
    },

  },

};

Members.js

module.exports = {

  attributes: {

    memberName: {
      type: 'string',
    },

    clubId: {
      type: 'string',
    },

  },

};

ClubsController.js

module.exports = {

    list: function(req, res) {

        Clubs.find({}).exec(function(err, club) {
            if(err) {
                res.send(500, {error: 'Database Error'});
            }
            res.view('pages/club-list', {clubs:club});
        });
    },

    add: function(req, res) {
        res.view('pages/club-add');
    },

    create: function(req, res) {
        var clubName = req.body.clubName;
        var clubDesc = req.body.clubDesc;

        Clubs.create({clubName:clubName, clubDesc:clubDesc}).exec(function(err){
            if(err) {
                res.send(500, {error: 'Database Error'});
            }

            res.redirect('/clubs/list');
        });

    },

};

MembersController.js

module.exports = {

    list: function(req, res) {

        Members.find({}).exec(function(err, member) {
            if(err) {
                res.send(500, {error: 'Database Error'});
            }
            res.view('pages/member-list', {members:member});
        });
    },

    add: function(req, res) {
        res.view('pages/member-add');
    },

    create: function(req, res) {
        var memberName = req.body.memberName;
        var clubId = req.body.clubId;

        Members.create({memberName:memberName, 
        clubId:clubId}).exec(function(err){
            if(err) {
                res.send(500, {error: 'Database Error'});
            }

            res.redirect('/members/list');
        });

    },

};

routes.js

module.exports.routes = {

  '/': { 
    view: 'pages/homepage',

  },

  '/clubs/list': {
    view: 'pages/club-list',
    controller: 'Clubs',
    action: 'list'
  },

  '/clubs/add': {
    view: 'pages/club-add',
    controller: 'Clubs',
    action: 'add'
  },

  '/clubs/create': {
    controller: 'Clubs',
    action: 'create',
  },

 '/members/list': {
  view: 'pages/member-list',
  controller: 'Members',
  action: 'list'
  },

  '/members/add': {
    view: 'pages/member-add',
    controller: 'Members',
    action: 'add'
  },

  '/members/create': {
    controller: 'Members',
    action: 'create',
  },

};

I'm really new to Sails.js here and I find that it's quite difficult to get resources on this matter. I'm not sure if I put this in a way that you guys could understand. But do ask for more details if you guys need more understanding. Thank you in advance.

I just wanted to give some advice on how to best use the most current Sails framework. Unless you've been specifically instructed to, I'd make sure to use version 1.0 or later. One of the big changes with this is the [Actions 2 format](https://sailsjs.com/documentation/concepts/actions-and-controllers). This means one controller per endpoint and makes for cleaner code. Secondly is to use async/await, which Sails 1.0 and up supports. Again, your code will be much cleaner and easier to read and it will be easier to handle errors without accidentally chutting down your server process. — streleck, Dec 15 '18 at 02:10

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '18 at 02:03

If I understand correctly, you're looking to create a one-to-many association between Clubs and Members. Here's how it should look in Clubs.js, your 'many':

attributes: {
    ...
    members: {
        collection: 'Members',
        via: 'club'
    }
}

Then in Members.js, your 'many':

attributes: {
     ...
     club: {
         model: 'Clubs'
     }
}

When you do Club.find(), the members key will be an array of member ids. If you do Club.find().populate('member'), the members key will be an array of fully-populated member objects.

Here are the docs on associations.

This isn't directly related to your question, buy since you are new to Sails, I am including a comment that will give you some advice on how to best use the framework. I hope it goes well!

How to access model attributes of different controller in Sails.js?

1 Answers1