Sails JS - How to Work With Specific Model Attributes from the Associated Controller

Question

I'm learning Javascript, Node and Sails, and have a basic newb (I think) question that I couldn't find an answer to elsewhere.

In a controller, I'm trying to access a specific model attribute and then create an array that includes each separate entry for use in a view. While I can access the records in my model in my menu/index view, I can't seem to work with any specific attribute directly in the model.

Here's the controller code in question:

var MenuController = module.exports = {

manager: function(req, res) {
var userId = req.session.user.id;

sails.log("Searching for foods for user: "+ userId);
Menu.find({ where: { userId: { equals: userId }}}).exec(function(err, records) {
    if(records && records.length == 0) {
      sails.log("No foods found for user: " + userId);
      sails.log(err);
      return res.view("menu/index");
    } else {
          var foodCategories = records.food_category;
          sails.log(foodCategories);
          var array = foodCategories.split(',');
          var foodCatArray = [];
          for (i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            foodCatArray.push(array[i].toUpperCase());
            var uniqueCats = foodCatArray.filter(function (item, i, ar) {
              return ar.indexOf(item) === i;
            });
            var sortedCats = uniqueCats.sort();
            sails.log(sortedCats);
          }
          return res.view("menu/index", {foods: records, sortedCats: sortedCats});
        }
      });
},

And here's the model in question:

var Menu =  module.exports = {
attributes: {
userId: {
  required: true,
  type: 'integer',
  min: 1
},
food_category: {
  type: "string",
  required: false,
  min: 1,
  max: 200
},
food_name: {
  type: "string",
  required: true,
  min: 1,
  max: 200
},
food_cost: {
  type: "string",
  required: true,
  min: 1,
  max: 10
},
food_description: {
  type: "string",
  required: true
},
img_path: {
  type: "string",
  required: true
},
img_name: {
  type: "string",
  required: true
},
img_name_crypt: {
  type: "string",
  required: true
}
}
};

Right now this line:

var foodCategories = records.food_category; 

creates an undefined value in my Sails log when I load the menu/index view. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

Your records variable is most probably array of objects.

Move the code inside the for loop and use it like

records[i].food_category

you don't need the var array ... In for loop use records.lenght instead

Answer 2

Many thanks to Molda for giving me a gentle nudge in the right direction!

Here's the Sails controller code that ended up working for me:

var MenuController = module.exports = {

manager: function(req, res) {
  var userId = req.session.user.id;
  sails.log("Searching for foods for user: "+ userId);
  Menu.find({ where: { userId: { equals: userId }}}).exec(function(err, records) {
   if(records && records.length == 0) {
    sails.log("No foods found for user: " + userId);
    sails.log(err);
    return res.view("menu/index");
   } else {
    var foodCatArray = [];
      for (i = 0; i < records.length; i++) {
        var foodCategories = records[i].food_category;
        foodCatArray.push(foodCategories);
      }
    var uniqueCats = foodCatArray.filter(function (item, i, ar) {
      return ar.indexOf(item) === i;
    });
    uniqueCats.sort();
    sails.log(uniqueCats);
    sails.log("Returning " + records.length + " foods found for user: " + userId);
    return res.view("menu/index",{ foods: records, foodCats:uniqueCats });
  }
 });
},

This code loops through each food_category string on each food item in the user's menu entries, adds it to an array, and then sorts through the array eliminating the duplicates and sorting the array alphabetically. In my view, I can use "foodCats" to grab this array and do anything to it that I need.