CODEWITHSUNDEEP
meteor
zdusper
zdusper

Reputation: 65

Linked collections in Meteor

I am working on a card game platform with a lot (10,000+) of cards dynamically updated with real-world data. Cards are populated/updated once a day.

I have two basic collections at the foundation (asides from users):

1) data - all individual items with different data values for same data fields/parameters (for example, various car models with their specifications). I update this collection once a day from a json API I have on another server for another purpose.

2) cards - "printed" cards with unique IDs but duplicates are off course possible (so we can have 10 Ford Focus 2010. cards). Cards collection has a couple of most important fields from data collection (model, brand, top performance parameter(s) of the card) to provide efficient user card browsing, and a "dataId" field which links it to data collection for detailed info. Cards in collection "cards" should be inserted ("issued" or "printed") with functions/methods on server side but in response to client side events (such as new-game etc). When a new card is inserted/dispatched, it first gets a unique "admin-owner" with a user _id from users table for one-to-one relationship, which is later updated to create ownership.

So, on client side, cards collection is like a user "deck" (all cards where owner is user). If I am correct, it should be written on the server side as:

Meteor.publish('cards', function() {
  return Cards.find({"userID":this.userId});
});

This is all quite clear and up to that point Meteor is fantastic as it saves me months of work!

But, I am not sure about:

1) I would like to have a client-side data collection publication to cover client detailed card view (by linking cards with data). It should off course have only all data items from data collection with details for each card in client card collection ("deck"). I see it as something like:

Meteor.publish('data', function (dataIds *array with all unique data item ids in client card collection *) {
  return Data.find("dataID":{$in:dataIds);
});

2) I need a server/client method to add/insert new cards from data-items ("create 10 news Ford Focus 2010 cards") with an empty/admin user by executing Meteor.call methods from client console of "admin" user, and a server/client method to change ownership of a random card so that it becomes a part of a client cards collection ("cast random card to user"). Where would I place those methods? How can I access server methods from client console (if a certain admin user is logged)?

4) I need a clever way of handling a server publication/client subscription of data collection that will have only the data used in cards from client cards collection. Should I use client side minimongo query to create an array with all dataIds needed to cover local cards collection? I am new to mongo, so I am not sure how would I write something like SELECT DISTINCT or GROUP BY to get that. Also, not sure if that is the best way to handle that, or should I do something server side as a publication?

Having a clear idea on 1-4 would get me going and then I guess I would dig my way around (and under :)

Upvotes: 2

Views: 493

Answers (1)

Hubert OG
Hubert OG

Reputation: 19544

1) The publish function you wrote makes perfect sense. Of course, there's a bit confusion in the term "client-side data collection publication": publications are on the server side, while on the client side you've got subscriptions. Also, while you didn't specify your schema, I suppose you've got dataID field in cards collection, that joins with _id in data collection, so your find should say {_id: {$in: dataIds}}.

2) Read this carefully, there's all you need for that. Remember to check user privileges within the server side method. A rule of thumb for security is that you should never trust the client.

3) There's no point 3?

4) I'm not sure how the question here is different from 1. However, you should probably familiarize with this method, which you can use in your subscription to ensure the _ids in the array are unique.

Upvotes: 2

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