Feature request: clone() to clone a record

[urakagi]

A method for FileCursor instance or Collection.clone(<_id>) will be good for applications that have duplication needs.

For example, wekan can copy cards, so when I copy a card the corresponded attachments also need to be copied. In this case, a clone method will be convenient.

It will also be good if we can pass an option that defines something that will not be cloned but use the passed parameters instead.

[tomtom87]

+1 A copy / duplicate function would be very useful so it can either straight up copy or have an option to rename.

[fracz]

Is there any workaround for now? I.e. how to duplicate existing files in FielsCollection now?

[dr-dimitru]

@fracz at the moment you would need to:

1. Read MongoDB record of the existing file
2. Write the same record to MongoDB omitting _id field
3. After new record inserted into collection grab newly created entry _id
4. Replace old _id in path, versions.original.path, and in custom meta fields (if any)
5. .copyFile() to actually duplicate a file using path from the old and new mongodb entries

Hope that helps

[fracz]

Ended up with the following code for duplicating certain files. Could you take a look, please?

// collection definition
const Attachments = new FilesCollection({...}).

// inside some meteor method:
if (Meteor.isServer) {
  Attachments.find(someFilters).forEach((attachment) => {
    const buffer = fs.readFileSync(attachment.path);
    Attachments.write(buffer, {
        fileName: attachment.name,
        type: attachment.type,
        size: attachment.size,
        userId: this.userId,
        meta: attachment.meta,
    });
  });
}

[dr-dimitru]

@fracz lgtm, don't forget to pass a callback to .write method to make sure you have controls over potential errors and exceptions