Mongoose model Schema with reference array: CastError: Cast to ObjectId failed for value "[object Object]"

Question

I build a blog website with express.js and mongoosejs. A article may have one or more category. When I create a new article, I get error:

{ [CastError: Cast to ObjectId failed for value "[object Object]" at path "categories"]
  message: 'Cast to ObjectId failed for value "[object Object]" at path "categories"',
  name: 'CastError',
  type: 'ObjectId',
  value: [ [object Object] ],
  path: 'categories' }

Could any one help me out? Related code shows bellow:

The Article model defined like this:

var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Schema = mongoose.Schema;
var ArticleSchema = new Schema({
created: {  type: Date, default: Date.now},
title: String,
content: String,
summary: String,
categories: [{ 
    type: Schema.ObjectId, 
    ref: 'Category' }]
});
mongoose.model('Article', ArticleSchema);

And the Category model defined like this:

var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
Schema = mongoose.Schema;
var CategorySchema = new Schema({
  parent: {
    type: Schema.ObjectId,
  },
  name: String,
  subs: [CategorySchema]
});
mongoose.model('Category', CategorySchema);

When I create a new Article and save it like this:

exports.create = function(req, res) {
  console.log(req.body);
  var article = new Article(req.body);
  article.user = req.user;
  console.log(article);
  article.save(function(err) {
    if (err) {
        console.log(err);
        return res.jsonp(500, {
            error: 'Cannot save the article'
        });
    }
    res.jsonp(article);
  });
};

When called the create function, the console.log() output shows bellow:

// console.log(req.body);
{ title: 'This is title',
  content: '<p>content here</p>',
  categories:
   [ { _id: '53c934bbf299ab241a6e0524',
     name: '1111',
     parent: '53c934b5f299ab241a6e0523',
     __v: 0,
     subs: [],
     sort: 1 } ],
  updated: [ 1405697477413 ] }

// console.log(article);
{ 
  title: 'This is title',
  content: '<p>content here</p>',
  _id: 53c93dc5b1c3b8e80cb4936b,
  categories: [],
  created: Fri Jul 18 2014 23:31:17 GMT+0800 (中国标准时间) }

// console.log(err);
{ [CastError: Cast to ObjectId failed for value "[object Object]" at path "categories"]
  message: 'Cast to ObjectId failed for value "[object Object]" at path "categories"',
  name: 'CastError',
  type: 'ObjectId',
  value: [ [object Object] ],
  path: 'categories' }

I have googled a lot, but without luck. Please help me!

---

Update: Thank for Gergo's answer. But if I update the exist article with the almoset the same code, it works OK! Why? Codes shows bellow:

var mongoose = require('mongoose'),
    Category = mongoose.model('Category'),
    _ = require('lodash');

exports.update = function(req, res) {
console.log(req.body);
var article = req.article;
article = _.extend(article, req.body);
console.log(article);
article.save(function(err) {
    if (err) {
        return res.jsonp(500, {
            error: 'Cannot update the article'
        });
    }
    res.jsonp(article);

  });
};

The output like this:

// console.log(req.body);
{ _id: '53ca42f418bfb23c1e04df02',
    summary: 'tttt',
    title: 'tt',
    content: '<p>tttt</p>',
    __v: 2,
    categories: [ { _id: '53c934bbf299ab241a6e0524', name: '1111' } ],
    created: '2014-07-19T10:05:40.183Z'
}

// console.log(article);
{ _id: 53ca42f418bfb23c1e04df02,
    title: 'tt',
    content: '<p>tttt</p>',
    __v: 2,
    categories: [ { _id: 53c934bbf299ab241a6e0524, name: '1111', subs: [], sort: 0
    } ],
    created: Sat Jul 19 2014 18:05:40 GMT+0800 (中国标准时间) 
}

This works ok.

Answer 1

Your article schema expects an array of ObjectIds:

var ArticleSchema = new Schema({
  ...
  categories: [{ 
    type: Schema.ObjectId, 
    ref: 'Category' }]
});

However req.body contains a category object:

categories:
   [ { _id: '53c934bbf299ab241a6e0524',
     name: '1111',
     parent: '53c934b5f299ab241a6e0523',
     __v: 0,
     subs: [],
     sort: 1 } ]

And Mongoose can't convert the category object to an ObjectId. This is why you get the error. Make sure categories in req.body only contains ids:

{ title: 'This is title',
  content: '<p>content here</p>',
  categories: [ '53c934bbf299ab241a6e0524' ],
  updated: [ 1405697477413 ] }