[FEATURE] Apply schema default values immediately on instantiation of a document

Proposal:

• Add dynamoose.model.defaults key of createWithDefaults (default false to make a non breaking change)

• Set to true, your defaults would be applied immediately on creating a new document whether its saved or not.

• In the case a user modifies the document breaking the defaults which have already been applied, thatd be a user error and the call to save would either fail or succeed with their intentionally changed document.

Code sample:

Schema

dynamoose.model.defaults = { createWithDefaults: true };

const MyModel= dynamoose.model('MyModel', {
	id: {
		type: String,
		default: () => uuid(),
		hashKey: true,
	},
	email: {
		type: String,
		required: true,
	},
	verified: {
		type: Boolean,
		required: true,
		default: false,
	},
});

const modelInstance = new MyModel({ email: '[e-mail]'});
const modelInstance = await MyModel.create({ email: '[e-mail]'});

/* 

Should both produce:

{ id: '9981f6d0-92ca-41b8-9c44-2c1d09effd3b', email: '[e-mail]', verified: false }

Regardless of the document being saved/created to the DB or not.

Instead of just:

{ email: '[e-mail]' }

*/

[daria-garkusha]

Is there any progress with this feature? It’s quite critical for us because we need to return back a document with default values after save or create. Currently, as a workaround we execute create method with { ‘return’: ‘request’ } settings to prefill default values and then save the document with all attributes. But it would be nice to get the correct document back by default or with an extra setting.

[fishcharlie]

@jdrydn I’m confused about what point you are trying to make. Read https://github.com/dynamoose/dynamoose/issues/905#issuecomment-651558108.

If after reading that you are in disagreement, or have additional comments, please leave them. I’m really looking for feedback here (hence why this issue is tagged with discussion).

---

Remember, this issue has gotten sidetracked in a major way. The original post says:

const modelInstance = new MyModel({ email: '[e-mail]'});
const modelInstance = await MyModel.create({ email: '[e-mail]'});

/* 
Should both produce:

{ id: '9981f6d0-92ca-41b8-9c44-2c1d09effd3b', email: '[e-mail]', verified: false }

A lot of this post is now referring to an issue where model.create and document.save don’t return items with default values.

To me, these are two different issues.

1. new Model returning default values, I’m unconvinced if that is a good idea. I also think it raises complexity around async stuff.
2. I’m in agreement that Model.create and document.save should return the object they sent to the DB.

I almost consider item 2 to be blocked by #1059. I know they are pretty unrelated, but it touches the same logic/function, and there is a chance that the two are connected somehow.

I also consider item 2 to be unrelated to the original issue/post, tho a lot of recent conversation has focused on that item. So maybe your comment about this being a bug, is related to the tag on this issue saying type:enhancement or the FEATURE in the title? If so, that is because I consider the original issue to be related to point 1, not point 2.