Use mongoose schema and save to different collections

Question

my goal here is learn how to use models for saving in the desired collection(collection name = year), the problem that i created to solve is the following: Suppose i'm working with data of school/college classes which remain the same (name, location and etc..) but the only variable is the year 2019, 2020 and so on..

I know I can use only one collection and filter by some idyear, but i thought that could be better to separate into a new collection named by the year so I could get something like:

collection 2018 -> X items
collection 2019 -> Y items
collection 2020 -> Z items

I tried the following code:

classModel.js

const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const Schema = mongoose.Schema;

const classSchema = new Schema({
    name: {type: String, required: true},
    info1: {type: String},
    iduser: {type: Number}
});

module.exports = mongoose.model('Classes', classSchema);

classController.js

const classModel = require('classModel');
const userModel = require('userModel');
exports.insertClass = async function(req, res){

    const user = await userModel.find({
        username: req.user
    }).limit(1);

    await classModel.create({
        name: req.name,
        info1: req.location,
        iduser: user[0].idperson
    }, {collection: '999999'}, function(err){
        if(err) console.log(err);
        res.sendStatus(200);
    });

}

The year i am hard coding now, but i plan to be attached to the user session (hence why i use another search). With this code i can manage to insert into the default behavior of the model, in the collection based on the model name but that's not my objective and end up with something like:

collection classes -> X+Y+Z

I was reading the mongoose doc and found the 'options' and 'set', so I tried to force the collection name in there (like this question) but couldn't do.

I'm stuck in this problem over the weekend so i can't say if I am 'overlooking' at some point or just new into node, if anyone can point me the direction i'd be very glad, i hope the question is clear.

I think you are inventing problem for you, just use one collection. — SuleymanSah, Dec 02 '19 at 18:26

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 02 '19 at 16:19

You are not going to be able to change the class collection dynamically using a single schema. You will need to create multiple class schemas for each collection i.e.

const class2018 = new Schema(
const class2019 = new Schema(
const class20220 = new Schema(

and then work out which schema to use for the client.

There is no benefit to this approach and you are simply creating complications and further challenges when you attempt to join and query these relationships.

I would create a single class collection with an index on the field you will join on like year and be done. Easy to manage, easy to join to, it's how mongoose expects the design to be and you will have far less headache when you start doing aggregation queries.

With the new $unionWith aggregation stage splitting same model data into multiple collections has a strong use-case for large datasets. — yunicz, Jul 21 '21 at 21:21

Use mongoose schema and save to different collections

1 Answers1