Update Operators

Part of the Databases with MongoDB section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 7 of 18.

Adding a copy or a tag should change a book in place, without reading it, changing it in JavaScript and writing it back.

$inc adds a number to a field, starting from 0 when the field is missing. $push appends a value to an array field, creating the array when it is missing. One update can hold several operators:

await players.updateOne(
    { name: 'Ada' },
    { $inc: { wins: 1 }, $push: { badges: 'streak' } }
);

The database applies the change itself, so two requests at the same moment both count. $set does not fit here: it replaces the whole badges array with the value you give it.

Challenge

Easy

POST /books/:id/copies adds 1 to the book's copies.
POST /books/:id/tags with { "tag": "classic" } adds the tag to its tags array.
Both answer 200 with the updated book, or 404 for an unknown id.

Send each one twice and watch the book in the Data tab.

Try it yourself

import express from 'express';
import { MongoClient, ObjectId } from 'mongodb';

const client = new MongoClient('mongodb://localhost:27017');
const db = client.db('shelf');
const books = db.collection('books');

await books.insertMany([
    { title: 'Dune', author: 'Frank Herbert', year: 1965, isbn: '9780441013593', genre: 'scifi' },
    { title: 'Kindred', author: 'Octavia E. Butler', year: 1979, isbn: '9780807083697', genre: 'scifi' },
    { title: 'Emma', author: 'Jane Austen', year: 1815, isbn: '9780141439587', genre: 'classic' },
]);

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

// Every error answers { error: message }.
function sendError(res, status, message) {
    res.status(status).json({ error: message });
}

// The :id as an ObjectId, or null after answering 400 for a bad id.
function parseId(req, res) {
    if (ObjectId.isValid(req.params.id)) {
        return new ObjectId(req.params.id);
    }
    sendError(res, 400, 'Not a valid id');
    return null;
}

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    res.send('Bookshelf API');
});

app.get('/books', async (req, res) => {
    const filter = {};
    if (req.query.author) {
        filter.author = req.query.author;
    }
    if (req.query.from || req.query.to) {
        filter.year = {};
        if (req.query.from) {
            filter.year.$gte = Number(req.query.from);
        }
        if (req.query.to) {
            filter.year.$lte = Number(req.query.to);
        }
    }
    const list = await books.find(filter).toArray();
    res.json(list);
});

app.post('/books', async (req, res) => {
    const book = req.body;
    await books.insertOne(book);
    res.status(201).json(book);
});

app.get('/books/newest', async (req, res) => {
    const n = Number(req.query.n) || 3;
    const list = await books
        .find({}, { projection: { title: 1, year: 1, _id: 0 } })
        .sort({ year: -1 })
        .limit(n)
        .toArray();
    res.json(list);
});

app.get('/books/:id', async (req, res) => {
    const id = parseId(req, res);
    if (!id) return;
    const book = await books.findOne({ _id: id });
    if (!book) {
        return sendError(res, 404, 'No such book');
    }
    res.json(book);
});

app.patch('/books/:id', async (req, res) => {
    const id = parseId(req, res);
    if (!id) return;
    const result = await books.updateOne({ _id: id }, { $set: req.body });
    if (result.matchedCount === 0) {
        return sendError(res, 404, 'No such book');
    }
    res.json(await books.findOne({ _id: id }));
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Bookshelf is running on port 3000');
});