[+] Forms - Embedded arrays containing "deep" embedded documents are json inputs

[Listu]

Expected behavior

Display array of embedded documents as related data

Actual behavior

Displayed as json in the parent document

Context

I have a Society with an array of Member embedded. Members are displayed in "details" and not in Related Data. I tried to create a fake field as a workaround with:

{ field: '_members', type: ['String'], reference: 'Society.members' }

but it try to display societies (whereas I guessed the model put in Liana.ResourceSerializer(Liana, Member... would say to forest "hey it's a Member")

• Package Version: 2.13.1
• Express Version: 4.15.4
• Mongoose Version: 4.10.8
• MongoDB Version: 3.4.9

[arnaudbesnier]

Hi @Listu, we'll look at your issue next week!

[root-io]

Hey @Listu we were wondering if you could give us a sample of data you had in your database. A Society document with the embedded members. Thanks !

[Listu]

Of course @root-io
Hope it helps !

`
{

    "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fde138e931929505a087a"),
    "updatedAt" : ISODate("2018-09-17T09:11:03.086Z"),
    "createdAt" : ISODate("2018-09-05T13:45:56.398Z"),
    "name" : "SPT",
    "address" : {
            "place_id" : "ChIJfXRynsNv5kcRZ9ypL-zaaoI",
            "country" : "France",
            "city" : "Paris",
            "area" : "Paris",
            "street" : "37 Rue Marbeuf",
            "postal_code" : "75008",
            "coordinates" : [
                    48.86967500000001,
                    2.305317000000059
            ],
            "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fde138e931929505a0882")
    },
    "invitations" : [ ],
    "status" : 0,
    "stripe" : "**************",
    "billingFrequency" : 2,
    "billings" : [
            {
                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fde138e931929505a0878"),
                    "address" : {
                            "place_id" : "ChIJfXRynsNv5kcRZ9ypL-zaaoI",
                            "country" : "France",
                            "city" : "Paris",
                            "area" : "Paris",
                            "street" : "37 Rue Marbeuf",
                            "postal_code" : "75008",
                            "coordinates" : [
                                    48.86967500000001,
                                    2.305317000000059
                            ],
                            "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fde138e931929505a0879")
                    },
                    "nic" : "63214",
                    "siren" : "123654789",
                    "capital" : 15000,
                    "raison" : "SPT",
                    "service" : null
            },
            {
                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b9f6ee870be0f42d0a0384e"),
                    "address" : {
                            "place_id" : "ChIJfXRynsNv5kcRZ9ypL-zaaoI",
                            "city" : "Paris",
                            "area" : "Paris",
                            "country" : "France",
                            "postal_code" : "75008",
                            "street" : "37 Rue Marbeuf",
                            "coordinates" : [
                                    48.86967500000001,
                                    2.305317000000059
                            ],
                            "_id" : ObjectId("5b9f6ee870be0f42d0a0384f")
                    },
                    "capital" : 10000,
                    "nic" : "12355",
                    "siren" : "123456789",
                    "raison" : "TEST",
                    "service" : "Yolo"
            }
    ],
    "members" : [
            {
                    "updatedAt" : ISODate("2018-09-05T13:45:56.396Z"),
                    "createdAt" : ISODate("2018-09-05T13:45:56.396Z"),
                    "user" : ObjectId("5b8fde128e931929505a085d"),
                    "billing" : ObjectId("5b8fde138e931929505a0878"),
                    "politic" : {
                            "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fdd468e931929505a0776"),
                            "rental" : {
                                    "maxprice" : 100
                            },
                            "price" : {
                                    "min" : 0,
                                    "max" : 500,
                                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fdd468e931929505a0777")
                            },
                            "stars" : {
                                    "min" : 1,
                                    "max" : 5,
                                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fdd468e931929505a0778")
                            }
                    },
                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b8fde138e931929505a087b"),
                    "roles" : [
                            "executive"
                    ]
            },
            {
                    "updatedAt" : ISODate("2018-09-17T09:11:03.085Z"),
                    "createdAt" : ISODate("2018-09-17T09:10:52.029Z"),
                    "user" : ObjectId("5b9f6f9b70be0f42d0a03881"),
                    "politic" : {
                            "flight" : {
                                    "price" : {
                                            "max" : 1100,
                                            "min" : 0
                                    },
                                    "class" : "business"
                            },
                            "_id" : ObjectId("5b9f6fa770be0f42d0a03aac"),
                            "rental" : {
                                    "maxprice" : 100
                            },
                            "price" : {
                                    "min" : 0,
                                    "max" : 500,
                                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b9f6fa770be0f42d0a03aad")
                            },
                            "stars" : {
                                    "min" : 2,
                                    "max" : 5,
                                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b9f6fa770be0f42d0a03aae")
                            }
                    },
                    "billing" : ObjectId("5b9f6ee870be0f42d0a0384e"),
                    "_id" : ObjectId("5b9f6f9c70be0f42d0a03888"),
                    "roles" : [
                            "traveler"
                    ]
            }
    ],
    "__v" : 1

}
`

[arnaudbesnier]

Hi @Listu, this is currently a limitation of our platform.

In the case of arrays of embedded document that contain only keys/values with a "single depth level", these arrays will appear in the "Related Data" section.

For more complex documents in embedded arrays, as the edition may be very complex, we display a JSON field to manipulate the data. This is clearly not an ideal usage, but at least you can read and manipulate the data. We definitely need to work on this.

[Listu]

Ok so we have to change our model, wait an improvement or dev our own dashboard. Thank you for the help.

[roonie007]

Any news on this ?

[ozomer]

We have the same problem over here.
Actually this can be solved with a smart collection of sub-documents, with a one-to-many relationship between the parent document and the sub-documents, by implementing the json-api.
The "id" of each subdocument should contain both the the id of the parent document and the id of the sub-document to avoid collisions between two sub-documents with the same id that reside in two different parent documents. This can be skipped if the sub-documents' ids are unique (i.e. when they are autogenerated by mongoose). Also, each subdocument should have a reference to its exactly-one parent document, and an index for its position inside the parent document array.
The references themselves the be implemented with Liana smart relationships.
Paging can also be a non-trivial because of the ordering. It could be solved by sorting the subdocuments first by the parent-id and then by their own subdocument-id.

Flattening all the models could annoying, especially if you are actually modeling a tree structure, i.e. "Project" containing an array of "Sections", containing an array of "Tasks". This is one of the greatest advantages of NoSql - you can simply load the document with Robo3t or other clients, load the document, and see the tree-structure without needing to write code for populating all the arrays of references.