$populate across multiple levels

[mcnamee]

Hi,
Is it currently possible to populate across multiple levels via a rest URL get request?

For example, populating the friends array with user data:

const userSchema = new Schema({
   name: { type: String, default: '', required: true },
   friends: [
      { friendId: { type: String, ref: 'users' },
...

If not, any advice on how this could be achieved?

[adamh114]

Assuming the users schema/model is registered, this works for me.

/service-name/?$populate[]=friends.friendId

I'll add that I've only done this when the field to populate is {type: Schema.Types.ObjectId}, so I'm not sure if it'll work with type String or not.

[mcnamee]

Ah ha, I didn't realise you could do square brackets deal. Thanks so much @adamh114