Argument must be a string in nodejs

Question

I'm having the following code:

              var objectid = infos[i].id;
              var name = infos[i].name;
              return collection.aggregate([
                {$match: {app: new ObjectId(objectid)}},
                {$group: {_id: "$uid", amt: {$sum: 1}}}
              ])

Previously this code was working fine, but recently I started getting the below stacktrace in sails:

error: TypeError: Argument must be a string
    at TypeError (native)
    at Buffer.write (buffer.js:791:21)
    at serializeObjectId (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:242:10)
    at serializeInto (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:699:17)
    at serializeObject (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:280:18)
    at serializeInto (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:705:17)
    at serializeObject (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:280:18)
    at serializeInto (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:551:17)
    at serializeObject (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:280:18)
    at serializeInto (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/parser/serializer.js:705:17)
    at serialize (/Users/user/git/pivot/code/node_modules/sails-mongo/node_modules/bson/lib/bson/bson.js:47:27)

It's complaining because of the ObjectId which I imported like so:

var ObjectId = require('mongodb').ObjectID;

As I said before, this was working fine but not anymore. I'm really confused. If I put objectId as a string it will not return any results. If I leave it as is (as it was working before) it throws exceptions. What is the issue here?

I have read the below :

https://docs.mongodb.com/v3.0/reference/operator/aggregation/cmp/#exp._S_cmp

I'm able to do this in robomongo:

 db.getCollection("openevent").aggregate([
                {$match: {app: new ObjectId(OBJECT_ID) }},
                {$group: {_id: "$uid", amt: {$sum: 1}}}
              ])

Using the same values as above. What am I doing wrong??

I see the following for sails-mongo:

└─┬ sails-mongo@0.12.1
  └─┬ mongodb@2.1.6
    └── mongodb-core@1.3.1

It looks like it is expecting to find a Buffer. What about 'new ObjectId(new Buffer(String(objectid)))'? — HeadCode, Jul 27 '16 at 04:18
Doesn't work :( `Argument passed in must be a single String of 12 bytes or a string of 24 hex characters` — KVISH, Jul 27 '16 at 04:27
Can you console.log the objectid after the first line above? — HeadCode, Jul 27 '16 at 04:29
Three values: `57424c8908d4af812c77a77e`, `5748eac6c35b3145141b6463`, `577212b6f05adb1a3ad16399` — KVISH, Jul 27 '16 at 04:30
I think the problem is the loop. The database stuff will be asynchronous but you have used a local variable as an argument, which will either have changed by the next iteration or be long gone by the time the database function returns. See this post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11488014/asynchronous-process-inside-a-javascript-for-loop — HeadCode, Jul 27 '16 at 04:50
I do them in a promise, for each loop. I think it's fine. It seems to be something else. And it's working in production! Locally i'm using a mac and on production its Ubuntu. — KVISH, Jul 27 '16 at 05:02
Can you try doing `{$match: {app: new ObjectId(objectid.toString())}}`? This may help you. — Shrabanee, Jul 27 '16 at 05:46
Nope -- tried that as well! Also, `objectid` is a string in my case. — KVISH, Jul 27 '16 at 05:52

KVISH · Answer 1 · 2017-12-14T18:31:47.140

12

I have no idea why this is even an answer, but I'll post it.

Previously I had this:

var ObjectId = require('mongodb').ObjectID;

I changed to this:

var ObjectId = require('sails-mongo/node_modules/mongodb').ObjectID;

And somehow that made all the difference.

edited Dec 14 '17 at 18:31

answered Jul 27 '16 at 07:22

KVISH

12,923
17
86
162

somehow that worked for me too, maybe it's an issue with the version of the mongodb module? – martskins Aug 03 '16 at 12:47
That's my guess also. – KVISH Aug 03 '16 at 15:08
3

yeah I can confirm that, just installed version 2.1.17 of `mongodb` and it's working now – martskins Aug 03 '16 at 16:13
1

You used that version and used the old or the new import statement above? Just want to be clear. – KVISH Aug 03 '16 at 17:59
1

I used that version and the old import: `var ObjectId = require('mongodb').ObjectID`; – martskins Aug 03 '16 at 18:11
Weird. I'm using `sails-mongo` v 0.12.1 and had that issue. – KVISH Aug 03 '16 at 18:19
An issue shall be created on the official Github Sails page – securecurve Dec 13 '16 at 20:27
1

The answer below by @vkarpov is the correct answer to this problem - for others searching for this same error, i'd recommend marking his answer as correct. – Cory Robinson Jan 19 '17 at 19:36
This is a compatibility problem between mongoDB node js driver (mongodb module) and sails-mongo module. – 1nstinct Feb 21 '21 at 04:44

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 12 '16 at 01:39

8

For posterity's sake, this is usually due to compatibility issues between versions of mongo. MongoDB driver 2.2 uses mongodb-core 2.0 (and bson 0.5) whereas MongoDB driver 2.1 uses mongodb-core 1.3 and bson 0.4. If you try to use a MongoDB driver 2.1 ObjectId with MongoDB driver 2.2 you'll get this error.

answered Nov 12 '16 at 01:39

vkarpov15

3,614
24
21

THIS IS VERY CORRECT. – Cory Robinson Jan 19 '17 at 19:34

Argument must be a string in nodejs

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