Populate.md

Populate (blueprint)

Populate and return foreign record(s) for the given association of this record.

GET /:model/:id/:association

If the specified association is plural ("collection"), this action returns the list of associated records as a JSON-encoded array of dictionaries (plain JavaScript objects). If the specified association is singular ("model"), this action returns the associated record as a JSON-encoded dictionary.

Parameter	Type	Details
model	((string))	The identity of the containing model. e.g. 'purchase' (in GET /purchase/47/cashier)
id	((string))	The primary key of the parent record. e.g. '47' (in GET /purchase/47/cashier)
association	((string))	The name of the association. e.g. 'cashier' (in GET /purchase/47/cashier) or 'products' (in GET /purchase/47/products)
where	((string?))	Instead of filtering based on a specific attribute, you may instead choose to provide a where parameter with the WHERE piece of a Waterline criteria, encoded as a JSON string. This allows you to take advantage of contains, startsWith, and other sub-attribute criteria modifiers for more powerful find() queries. e.g. ?where={"name":{"contains":"theodore"}}
limit	((number?))	The maximum number of records to send back (useful for pagination). Defaults to 30. e.g. ?limit=100
skip	((number?))	The number of records to skip (useful for pagination). e.g. ?skip=30
sort	((string?))	The sort order. By default, returned records are sorted by primary key value in ascending order. e.g. ?sort=lastName%20ASC
select	((string?))	The attributes to include in each record in the result, specified as a comma-delimited list. By default, all attributes are selected. Not valid for plural (“collection”) association attributes. e.g. ?select=name,age.
omit	((string?))	The attributes to exclude from each record in the result, specified as a comma-delimited list. Cannot be used in conjuction with select. Not valid for plural (“collection”) association attributes. e.g. ?omit=favoriteColor,address.

Example

Populate the cashier who conducted purchase #47:

`GET /purchase/47/cashier`

Expected response

{
  "name": "Dolly",
  "id": 7,
  "createdAt": 1485462079725,
  "updatedAt": 1485476060873,
}

Using jQuery:

$.get('/purchase/47/cashier', function (cashier) {
  console.log(cashier);
});

Using Angular:

$http.get('/purchase/47/cashier')
.then(function (cashier) {
  console.log(cashier);
});

Using sails.io.js:

io.socket.get('/purchase/47/cashier', function (cashier) {
  console.log(cashier);
});

Using cURL:

curl http://localhost:1337/purchase/47/cashier

Populating a collection

You can also populate a collection. For example, to populate the involvedInPurchases of employee #7:

GET /employee/7/involvedInPurchases

Expected response

[
  {
    "amount": 10000,
    "createdAt": 1485476060873,
    "updatedAt": 1485476060873,
    "id": 47,
    "cashier": 7
  },
  {
    "amount": 50,
    "createdAt": 1487015460792,
    "updatedAt": 1487015476357,
    "id": 52,
    "cashier": 7
  }
]

Notes

• In the first example above, if purchase #47 did not have a cashier (i.e. null), then this action would respond with a 404 status code.

• The examples above assume "rest" blueprint routing is enabled (or that you've bound this blueprint action as a comparable custom route), and that your project contains at least an empty Employee model as well as a Purchase model, and that Employee has the association attribute: involvedInPurchases: {model: 'Purchase'} and that Purchase has cashier: {model: 'Employee'}. You can quickly achieve this by running:

  $ sails new foo
  $ cd foo
  $ sails generate model purchase
  $ sails generate model employee

...then editing api/models/Employee.js and api/models/Purchase.js.