Sails: Multiple calls for lifecycle callbacks

[aantipov]

Hi
I've encountered strange behaviour of lifecycle callbacks.
Each of them are called multiple times during single PUT request.
For example, if I set following:

  beforeValidate: function (values, done) {
    console.log('Before Validate');
    done();
  },

then after a single put request my console shows me:

Before Validate
Before Validate
Before Validate
Before Validate

WTF?

[tjwebb]

Does the model you're acting on have associations?

[aantipov]

yes, it has some

[tjwebb]

Does it have 3? :) beforeValidate will be called for every model that needs to be validated, which includes associations.

[aantipov]

yep
Huh, what is the sense to call 'beforValidate' callback on model's associations? What data are passed to the callback?

[particlebanana]

When you pass an object with nested associations in it updates the parent and the child values. It was probably a mistake to add that feature but it's there in 0.10.x. So if you pass in User with 3 pets it will update the user and update the pets as well.

[aantipov]

Well, I just found out that my 4 calls for beforeValidate cb are due to the presense of the following association:

language: {model: 'Language'},

And the Language model looks like this:

module.exports = {
  attributes: {
    key: {type: 'string', primaryKey: true, required: true, unique: true},
    title: {type: 'string', required: true},
    toJSON: function () {
      var obj = this.toObject();
      return {key: obj.key, title: obj.title};
    }
  },

  autoPK: false
};

If the body of my put request contain the language attr like this:

{
...
"language": {"key": "fr", "title": "French"},
...
}

then I actually have those 4 beforeValidate calls.
But if I pass language property in put request like this:

"language": "fr",

then I have only one beforeValidate cb call.

I decided to add to the main model and to all its assotiations the following beforeValidate callback:

beforeValidate: function (values, done) {
    console.log('BEFORE VALIDATE <Model Title>', _.keys(values));
}

And when I pass an object to the language property in PUT request, then I get:

BEFORE VALIDATE MAIN-MODEL [ 'createdAt',
  'desc',
  'id',
  'language',
  'state',
  'title',
  'updatedAt' ]
BEFORE VALIDATION LANGUAGE-MODEL [ 'key', 'title' ]
BEFORE VALIDATE MAIN-MODEL [ 'language' ]
BEFORE VALIDATE MAIN-MODEL [ 'title',
  'language',
  'desc',
  'author',
  'state',
  'createdAt',
  'updatedAt',
  'id' ]
BEFORE VALIDATE MAIN-MODEL [ 'title',
  'language',
  'desc',
  'author',
  'state',
  'createdAt',
  'updatedAt',
  'id' ]

Could you explain me

1. Why does I have a single cb call in one case and 4 calls in another case?
2. What is really happend when I pass an object instead of an id value as a language property in PUT request?

[mkeremguc]

@particlebanana why was it a mistake ?. create/update with nested associations is a great feature that i haven't seen on any other framework yet...

[dottodot]

I'm finding something very similar in beforeUpdate but it's causing major issues as for some reason one of the times it's triggered the model association field is passed a null value which then removes the association and I don't understand where this null value is coming from

[sailsbot]

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Thanks so much for your help!

[mikermcneil]

@particlebanana why was it a mistake ?. create/update with nested associations is a great feature that i haven't seen on any other framework yet...

@mkeremguc it is very handy, but also incredibly easy to accidentally trip up on (i.e. by accidentally passing in a deeply-nested dictionary). That said, we intend to continue to support it in its current capacity through the current release cycle-- we just need to lighten things up and deprecate it in the next major release of Waterline (it's become a huge maintenance burden that's largely fallen on @particlebanana's shoulders even though he's not currently using it in a production app.) If anyone using it in production would like to help keep that feature alive in Waterline v1.0, please reach out to us on Twitter.

[armellarcier]

Posted a comment here https://github.com/balderdashy/waterline/issues/751#issuecomment-179931398

Would need to know which call is the first one. Is that possible?

[1nstinct]

I found the solution, but it need to be verified carefully, but I am hurry to share it with you guys - not beat me if something wrong.
I have several update requests, because my model has associations.

I've resolved it by puting verification variable. If I want to update some secure data (e.g. payment status - I pass in update data additional verification attribute), if I don't pass - data not updating - remove from updating (leave like it is).

```javascript
....
beforeUpdate: function(values, cb) {
// reset security values if request comes from user - not API itself
if(values.payment_status && values.permitCode !== sails.config.custom_config.permit_code) delete values.payment_status; // prevent create payment status manually

cb();

},
....
````

[1nstinct]

The other solution is to initialize variable after first pass and to verify it in the next passes. Variable should be global. My code is next:
```javascript
....
beforeUpdate: function(values, cb) {
if(typeof dirtyData == 'undefined') {
//make some operations only in first pass
}
dirtyData = true;
cb();
},
....
````
and do not forget to unset it in building response in badRequest.js and ok.js because, in case the next request, it will already be initialized:

```javascript
module.exports = function badRequest(data, options) {
....
delete dirtyData;
....
};
````

```javascript
module.exports = function sendOK (data, options) {
....
delete dirtyData;
....
};
````

after first pass variable "dirtyData" will be initialized