MEAN entities association - angularjs

Question

I am experimenting with the MEAN stack, specifically with MEAN.js.
While everything is pretty well explained in the documentation, it seems that the simple task to associate an entity (or Model) with another isn't explained in the documentation or the examples.
For example, it is easy to generate a crud for Ideas and one for Polls. But what if I have to link "polls" to an "idea", in a one-to-many relation?
I assume I would do something that resembles to this in polls.client.controller.js:
// Create new Poll
$scope.create = function() {
// Create new Poll object
var poll = new Polls ({
ideaId: this.idea.ideaId,//here I associate a poll with an Idea
vote1: this.vote1,
vote2: this.vote2,
vote3: this.vote3,
vote4: this.vote4,
vote5: this.vote5
});
// Redirect after save
poll.$save(function(response) {
$location.path('polls/' + response._id);
// Clear form fields
$scope.name = '';
}, function(errorResponse) {
$scope.error = errorResponse.data.message;
});
};
But when the angular model is pushed to Express.js backend, I don't see any trace in the request about the Idea, the only thing I get is the Poll.
/**
* Create a Poll
*/
exports.create = function(req, res) {
var poll = new Poll(req.body);
poll.user = req.user;
//poll.ideaId = req.ideaId;//undefined
poll.save(function(err) {
if (err) {
return res.status(400).send({
message: errorHandler.getErrorMessage(err)
});
} else {
res.jsonp(poll);
}
});
};
Here is my Mongoose Model:
'use strict';
/**
* Module dependencies.
*/
var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Schema = mongoose.Schema;
/**
* Poll Schema
*/
var PollSchema = new Schema({
vote1: {
type: Number
},
vote2: {
type: Number
},
vote3: {
type: Number
},
vote4: {
type: Number
},
vote5: {
type: Number
},
created: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
},
user: {
type: Schema.ObjectId,
ref: 'User'
},
idea: {
type: Schema.ObjectId,
ref: 'Idea'
}
});
mongoose.model('Poll', PollSchema);
I am sure that there is something I did wrong, but any explanation (or link) on how to perform this task that goes beyond this particular error or setup of mine would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The solution I found (I am not sure if it is the correct solution or a workaround) is to populate the .idea field of a poll with its corresponding ._id:
var poll = new Polls ({
idea: this.idea._id,
vote1: 5,
vote2: 3,
vote3: 3,
vote4: 1,
vote5: 2
});
At this point, when I get to express, poll.idea has the correct association.