Can't update a single doc in Mongo with Node - ajax

Question

Hopefully someone can point out my error here.
In my app a user clicks on a button to insert a doc into the database. When they click on another button, a timestamp is added to an array.
Here's the code to create the doc (it works):
// Add User
function addUser(event) {
event.preventDefault();
ident = makeWords(2);
var newUser = {
'ident' : ident,
'group': '',
'timestamps': [],
'date_created': Date()
}
// Use AJAX to post the object to our adduser service
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
data: newUser,
url: '/users/adduser',
dataType: 'JSON'
}).done(function( response ) {
if (response.msg === '') {
console.log('user added');
} else {
alert('Error');
}
});
};
And here's the route which handles it:
/*
* POST to adduser.
*/
router.post('/adduser', function(req, res) {
var db = req.db;
var collection = db.get('testcol'); //'testcol' is the name of my collection
collection.insert(req.body, function(err, result){
res.send(
(err === null) ? { msg: '' } : { msg: err }
);
});
});
I kind of thought that updating a doc would be just as easy. I'm grabbing the doc by the ident field, which will be unique to each user. However, I can't seem to make the client-side stuff pass to the server. Here's my client-side update:
function addError(event) {
event.preventDefault();
// If it is, compile all user info into one object
var errorUpdate = {
'$push': {'error_button': Date()}
}
// Use AJAX to post the object to our adduser service
$.ajax({
type: 'PUT',
data: errorUpdate,
url: '/users/errorUpdate',
dataType: 'JSON'
}).done(function( response ) {
if (response.msg === '') {
console.log("update sent, didn't receive an error");
}
else {
alert('Error');
}
});
};
This code executes, but the server-side just throws 500s. Here's that function:
/*
* update mongo doc
*/
router.put('/errorUpdate', function(req, res) {
var db = req.db;
var collection = db.get('testcol');
collection.update({'ident': ident},req.body, function(err, result){
if (err) {
console.log('Error updating menu: ' + err);
res.send({'users.js: error':'An error has occurred'});
} else {
console.log('doc has been updated');
res.send(item);
}
});
});
Any idea where I'm going wrong?

Answer 1

I solved this and it was a really really stupid mistake.
You might notice in my server-side code I use a variable called ident:
router.put('/errorUpdate', function(req, res) {
var db = req.db;
var collection = db.get('testcol');
collection.update({'ident': ident},req.body, function(err, result)...
ident is a global variable from my client-side stuff (global.js, which makes the ajax call), and it never made it to the server.
Further, I tried to send the Mongo update statement with the ident variable, which is totally unnecessary and just caused headaches.
Here's how I fixed it. This is client-side (where I only send the ident variable):
function addError(event) {
event.preventDefault();
// If it is, compile all user info into one object
var identifyMe = {
'ident': ident
}
// Use AJAX to post the object to our adduser service
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: '/users/errors',
data: identifyMe,
dataType: 'JSON'
}).done(function( response ) {
// Check for successful (blank) response
if (response.msg === '') {
console.log('update sent, no errors received');
}
else {
console.log('Error detected. Response was: ' + response);
}
});
};
... and this is server-side, where I take that identifier and do the update (this works because all I'm doing is inserting a time stamp):
router.post('/errors', function(req, res) {
console.log(req.body);
var identifier = req.body.ident;
var db = req.db;
var collection = db.get('testcol');
collection.update({'ident': identifier}, {$push: {'error_button': Date()}}, function(err, result){
res.send(
(err === null) ? { msg: '' } : { msg: err }
);
});
});
You might notice that I'm pulling out that ident variable from the JSON that's being passed, with req.body.ident.
Hope this helps someone else struggling with updating a Mongo doc by posting to Express routes via Ajax with Node! :)