mongodb - Mongoose - using Populate on an array of ObjectId

Question

I've got a schema that looks a bit like:

var conversationSchema = new Schema({
    created: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    updated: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    recipients: { type: [Schema.ObjectId], ref: 'User' },
    messages: [ conversationMessageSchema ]
});

So my recipients collection, is a collection of object id's referencing my user schema / collection.

I need to populate these on query, so i'm trying this:

Conversation.findOne({ _id: myConversationId})
.populate('user')
.run(function(err, conversation){
    //do stuff
});

But obviously 'user' isn't populating...

Is there a way I can do this?

Answer 1

For anyone else coming across this question.. the OP's code has an error in the schema definition.. it should be:

var conversationSchema = new Schema({
    created: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    updated: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
    recipients: [{ type: Schema.ObjectId, ref: 'User' }],
    messages: [ conversationMessageSchema ]
});
mongoose.model('Conversation', conversationSchema);