[SOLVED] How to populate reference stored in different collection?

How to populate reference stored in different collection?

I have a following monogodb collections

coll1       coll2
--------     -------
_id          _id
name         coll1_ids

coll2 can have multiple reference to coll1 but coll1 will only have one reference

I want to populate coll2 data in coll1. Is there easier way to do it without using aggregation in Node.js. Thank you!!!

Solution

You can use Mongoose virtual, you need to define virtual in coll1 schema and you can use those virtual in populate like below for example

coll1Schema.virtual('coll2Data', {
    ref: "coll2",
    localField: "_id",
    foreignField: "coll1_ids"
});

then you need to pass that virtual name in Mongoose populate function for example

Coll1.find().populte("coll2Data")