node.js - how to use populate and aggregate in same statement?

Question

This is my appointment collection:

{ _id: ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002"), date: ISODate("2013-05-13T22:00:00Z"), patient:ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002") }

{ _id: ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002"), date: ISODate("2013-05-13T22:00:00Z"), patient:ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002") }

{ _id: ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002"), date: ISODate("2013-05-13T22:00:00Z"), patient:ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002") }

I used aggregate to get the following result

{date: ISODate("2013-05-13T22:00:00Z"),
patients:[ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002"),ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002"),ObjectId("518ee0bc9be1909012000002")] }

like this:

Appointments.aggregate([
{$group: {_id: '$date', patients: {$push: '$patient'}}},
{$project: {date: '$_id', patients: 1, _id: 0}}
], ...)

How can I populate the patient document I trued this but it doesn't work ... Appointments.find({}).populate("patient").aggregate....

In other words, can i use populate and aggregate at the same statement

any help please

Answer 1

With the latest version of mongoose (mongoose >= 3.6), you can but it requires a second query, and using populate differently. After your aggregation, do this:

Patients.populate(result, {path: "patient"}, callback);

See more at the Mongoose API and the Mongoose docs.