Hey, Will the order of items be preserved in the populated array?

I am not sure whether this is something that is happening because of ObjectIds (am using Mongoose) or if the library doesn't maintain the order for any scenarios.

My original document is -

"tagIds": [
        "5f45e63e75589a147c264a4",
        "5f44bc0675589a147c26486",
    ],

The populated document is -

"tagIds": [
        "5f45e63e75589a147c264a4",
        "5f44bc0675589a147c26486",
    ],
"tags": [
    {
        "_id": "5f44bc0675589a147c26486",
        "name": "Tag 2"
    },
    {
        "_id": "5f45e63e75589a147c264a4",
        "name": "Tag 1"
    }
]

Thanks!

I've an app with customers and orders. In my frontend I've a table with customers and a column with ordersCount. I would like to populate that with graph-populate. So dynamically populate a number to an item.
A possible way would be:

ordersCount: {
    service: 'orders',
    nameAs: 'ordersCount',
    params: { query: { limit: 0 }, paginate: true }
    transformResult: (item, context) => item.total
  },

My last changes with requestPerItem introduced a mechanism to populate based on conditions but there's another step to take.
Explanation: I've a service called changelogs with entries to almost every service with columns: associatedServicePath, associatedId, userId.
If I want to populate the associated Item, I need to take the associatedServicePath. The most elegant way would be to have:

associatedItem: {
    service: (item, context) => item.associatedServicePath,
    nameAs: associatedItem, // or even `nameAs: (item, context) => singularize(item.associatedServicePath)`
    asArray: false
  },

For example --

users table
groups table

group_xref table with groupId and userId...

I have played around with things a bit myself, and have something working but it seems unideal.. I am using postgres and sequalize, so that may be most of the problem, or I am just missing something.

//users hooks

const populates = {
groups: {
service: "groups",
nameAs: "groups",
keyHere: "groupIds",
keyThere: "id",
asArray: true,
params: {}
}
};
const namedQueries = {
withGroups: {
groups: {}
}
};

If I set up users with a groupIds array column, all of the queries run as expected, but the results do not actually return unless I set up an association table, even though I dont have to actually use the xref table.. which is why I thought that the "sequalize way" may be part of my problem.

user.groups = user.belongsToMany(models.groups, {
through: "groupXref"
});

But, lets say I wanted to use the xref table, since I have had to thus far, would this library still work for me? I use feathers-vuex and handling associations has always seemed to be a pain, but this library seems like it might just be the magicalness I am looking for hahahha.

Passing a function to params breaks the nested populates it seems. Not sure how to preserve the $populateParams when passing a function to params in the relationship which utilizes context to create dynamic params.

For example - if a relationship uses a param function

    params: (params, context) => {
          params.scopeId= context.params.scopeId
        }

and has a nested query that needs to be populated

query: {
    posts: {
        users: {}
   }
}

Think it happens due to the way $populateParams are stored on the populates' before being passed to shallow-populate - which breaks when the params in the populate definition is a function.

This results in $populateParams being lost when the shallow-populate runs the param function which in turn results in all nested queries not getting executed.
https://github.com/Mattchewone/feathers-shallow-populate/blob/374dd961b47e2bc35dac86fdc609fa76e5096606/lib/shallow-populate.js#L115

Not really sure to resolve this (still trying to figure out what exactly is happening here)

1. move feathers-shallow-populate to feathers-graph-populate:

Maintaining both feels like a blocker. It's hard to test if I have changes for both. It's inconvenient for you marshall to make it both a release. It's an open door for unexpected bugs.
Option 1: Leave that as is. Separate repositories.
Option 2: Include shallowPopulate hook into the repo. Also move the tests (of course)
Option 3: Make it a monorepo

2. Make every option a function (starting with service):

My last changes with requestPerItem introduced a mechanism to populate based on conditions but there's another step to take.
Explanation: I've a service called changelogs with entries to almost every service with columns: associatedServicePath, associatedId, userId.
If I want to populate the associated Item, I need to take the associatedServicePath. The most elegant way would be to have:

associatedItem: {
    service: (item, context) => item.associatedServicePath,
    nameAs: associatedItem, // or even `nameAs: (item, context) => singularize(item.associatedServicePath)`
    asArray: false
  },

3. transformResult:

I've an app with customers and orders. In my frontend I've a table with customers and a column with ordersCount. I would like to populate that with graph-populate. So dynamically populate a number to an item.
A possible way would be:

ordersCount: {
    service: 'orders',
    nameAs: 'ordersCount',
    params: { query: { limit: 0 }, paginate: true }
    transformResult: (item, context) => item.total
  },

I know that fades away from the awesome approach of batch loading, but (2) and (3) would add even more functionality to feathers-shallow-populate and feathers-graph-populate.

Marshall, what do you think about these points?

Hey! Thanks for the awesome work.

I am trying to integrate this, but cant seem to get it working. I've gone back thru the docs many times t be sure it's setup properly...

I am wondering if maybe it has to do with the ObjectID type of _ID that mongo uses. Would keyHere: "_id" map to the _id: ObjectID("j89f2nj8iofjf") or is it expecting a string/int only?

See Mattchewone/feathers-shallow-populate#22 from @areiterer

As of ^1.4.0 I come across the same problem as @areiterer figured out. Populating an empty object instead of not setting the item at all, leads to many items in my FeathersVuex which are empty temp records.

Version ^1.2.0 which I used lastly did not behave that way. I'm afraid it's a problem I introduced with my changes. Sorry about that!

Please @marshallswain, it would be really nice if you could make this a feathers-shallow-populate release and update the dependency in feathers-graph-populate to that version.

As always, I highly appreciate your work! Thanks in advance!

First of all - Thanks a lot for pointing me to this earlier! I am exploring the library now and the overall ease of defining the relationships and named queries makes my whole flow so much cleaner. I've been using a mix of batch loaders and populates awkwardly to achieve what this library does out of the box in a much much better way!

Question - What exactly is the "params" in the populate definitions used for? Couldn't find any reference/documentation of that.

orgMemberships: {
    service: 'org-users',
    nameAs: 'orgMemberships',
    keyHere: '_id',
    keyThere: 'userId',
    asArray: true,
    params: {}
  }

Thanks!

Update docs to mention using $populateParams with model.save()

This file is never used, as module: feathers-shallow-populate is imported instead.

Hi, Thanks for this wonderful library,

What is the best way to handle a many-to-many relationship with this library?

Thanks

There's currently a disconnect in the docs between defining the relationships and creating named queries. It's unclear what all of the options for a populates entry do. A full working example repo/doc would be helpful!

Please see #23 for more information. This will be super useful for me to pass the requesting user from first request to all populate requests.

my user is set up with with a json column named data, this line below is what is causing all my confusion I believe! ( things working in some cases and not in others, leading me to assume its my own code issues lol )

In my case, it should be taking context.result to access the user object, as context.result.data is a field of my user so the dataMap function is never finding the keys to match up.

return function shallowPopulate (context) {
    const { app, type } = context
    let data = type === 'before' ? context.data : (context.result.data || context.result)
    data = [].concat(data || [])

    if (!data.length) {
      return Promise.resolve(context)
    }

const { paramsForServer } = require('feathers-graph-populate'); const { paramsFromClient } = require('feathers-graph-populate');

When I use either of the two requires, I get the following error:

Uncaught TypeError: paramsForServer is not a function