My code below doesn't allow the API user to update only one field by passing one request property. I can remove the null at userObj, but the UI developer will have to pass existing data from the database to do an update, which is not the best practice.

Here is my Express route:

router.put('/user', (req, res) => {
  const userObj = {
    name: req.body.name || null,
    location: {
      city: req.body.city || null
      },
      phone: req.body.phone || null
    };

  User.updateUser(req.body.id, userObj)
});

Here is my Mongoose model's updateUser function:

module.exports.updateUser = (_id, userObj, callback) => {
  User.findOneAndUpdate({_id}, userObj, { upsert: true, 'new': true }, callback);
}

My code below doesn't allow the API user to update only one field by passing one request property. I can remove the null at userObj, but the UI developer will have to pass existing data from the database to do an update, which is not the best practice.

Here is my Express route:

router.put('/user', (req, res) => {
  const userObj = {
    name: req.body.name || null,
    location: {
      city: req.body.city || null
      },
      phone: req.body.phone || null
    };

  User.updateUser(req.body.id, userObj)
});

Here is my Mongoose model's updateUser function:

module.exports.updateUser = (_id, userObj, callback) => {
  User.findOneAndUpdate({_id}, userObj, { upsert: true, 'new': true }, callback);
}

• javascript
• node.js
• express
• mongoose
• ecmascript-6

2 Answers 2

First, to address your issue with updating only a few certain properties, you have to use the $set operator to set only a certain field. When you pass userObj directly to findOneAndUpdate you reset the whole object thus you have to pass all the existing properties. Use $set:

User.findOneAndUpdate({_id}, { $set: userObj }, { upsert: true, new: true }, callback);

This will update only the properties defined in userObj to their new values and touch nothing else. Also, you could just use findByIdAndUpdate for this very use-case:

User.findByIdAndUpdate(_id, { $set: userObj }, { upsert: true, new: true }, callback);

Next, you shouldn't be using PUT. Use PATCH. PUT implies putting a resource at some URL, and replacing it entirely if it already exists. PATCH means you update only a few properties of a resource, and does replace the whole thing. This won't affect the app's functionality, but it's a huge semantics issue and end-user issue as they'd expect PATCH.

Use $set

User.findOneAndUpdate({_id}, {$set: userObj}, /* ... */)