Backend: Save a New Project to an Existing Collection (or Auto create the collection) #1207

Vriti62 · 2025-08-23T20:10:53Z

Closes: #1194
Linked to parent issue: #1180

Project Published URL 🔗

Backend-only change. Tested locally using Postman

Describe the add-ons or changes you've made 📃

Implemented backend logic to allow users to save a project into their saved collections.
Added auto-creation of a collection if it does not already exist.
Prevented duplicate project entries inside the same collection.
Used req.user from authentication middleware to ensure only logged-in users can save projects.
Response returns appropriate messages (new collection created, project saved, or duplicate prevention).

Screenshots 📷

fig1: auto-creation of collection and saving project

fig2: duplicate projects check in same collection

fig3: added to an existing collection

Type of change ☑️

What sort of change have you made:

[☑️ ] New feature
[☑️ ] Database update

Note to reviewers 📄

This is a backend-only feature and does not require frontend updates.

Kindly review the collection auto-creation logic and suggest if collection schema needs adjustment for multiple project references instead of separate documents.
Always open for feedbacks!!

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github-actions · 2025-08-23T20:11:11Z

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Avdhesh-Varshney

Hi @Vriti62, You have done nice work.
But also consider these guidelines of PR review.

If you are beginner in git, connect with me your problem

Avdhesh-Varshney · 2025-08-24T07:05:16Z

backend/Schemas/collection.schema.js

+        required:true
+    },
+    project_id:{
+        type:String,


In 1 collection, there should be the multiple projects to be saved.
So type should be array.

Thank you for the feedback!
Actually my initial approach was that I saved a document for each projects, cause its efficient to retrieve like that
with an array, the project_id would be nested (array of multiple project_ids) and hence,
-when a db query goes to fetch, it has to first go to the collection, then search the document, then go into the array and search
Instead, my plan was to make it efficient and make it search only inside the document, since it would be scanning the document anyways.
-it avoids nested array lookups, since queries would only need to scan documents directly rather than traversing into arrays. This felt a bit more efficient in terms of retrieval.

That said, I understand the consistency and maintainability benefits of keeping project_ids as an array inside a collection document. I can update the schema and controller logic to follow that design instead.

Avdhesh-Varshney · 2025-08-24T07:06:42Z

backend/Routes/api/collections.routes.js

+collection.post("/:id",  authenticateUser, saveProject);
+
+
+export default collection;


In Routes/index.js, you are importing collectionRoutes and here you are exporting collection?

Thank you for pointing it out!
I think its just a naming convention error
Ill edit it out !!

Avdhesh-Varshney · 2025-08-24T07:14:03Z

backend/Controllers/collection.controller.js

+    const existingProject = await Collection.findOne({userID,collection_name,project_id});
+    if(existingProject) return res.status(400).json("Project already exists in this collection");
+
+    // Case 1: No collection exists → create new one


Don't consider this case. If collection is not present, user either create the new collection or providing a default collection.

As saving videos for watch later in youtube.

Thank you for this point !
So, what i got from your part is that you want, either the project is saved to a user's collection, and if no collection is there, a separate collection (like watch later) exists.
So, if no name provided, ill be adding the project to a 'default-collection' in the same case!

So, if no name provided, ill be adding the project to a 'default-collection' in the same case!

Correct!

Avdhesh-Varshney · 2025-08-24T07:15:45Z

backend/Controllers/collection.controller.js

+      );
+    }
+
+    // Case 2: Try to update empty slot


Is empty slot means default collection?

Empty slot here is for project_id
Actually this is a case i considered for when user manually creates a collection
When a manual collection is created- the project_id field of it is null by default
So, now when user adds the first project to the manually created collection, instead of creating a new document for the same collection and setting the project_id as the saved project's id, i modified that document which was created for manual collection creation, and replace the 'null' id with the project_id of the project being saved
This was done to avoid redundancy in the database! So, every document is used properly!

Avdhesh-Varshney · 2025-08-24T07:17:51Z

backend/Controllers/collection.controller.js

+      );
+    }
+
+    // Case 3: No empty slots → create new document


I don't understand the use cases of all 3 cases

It should be simple. If user saving any project, FE will display the UI to either select the default or select any existing already created collection or create a new collection.

Hey!
The 3 use cases for the saveproject endpoint is simply to create a new collection (which now is changed to adding the project to a default collection as per your say), and avoiding any redundancy in the document!
Please let me know if its still not justifiable or if any changes are required!!

backend/Controllers/collection.controller.js

Vriti62 added 2 commits August 24, 2025 00:49

added-saving-project-functionality-and-auto-creation-of-collection

7e59c15

fixed-some-bugs

a6c7303

Vriti62 and others added 3 commits August 24, 2025 01:42

Merge branch 'main' into main

76de849

added-create-collection-manually-and-fixed-the-same

8a20748

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/Vriti62/code-a2z

0bea348

Avdhesh-Varshney requested changes Aug 24, 2025

View reviewed changes

Avdhesh-Varshney assigned Vriti62 Aug 24, 2025

Vriti62 closed this Aug 25, 2025

Avdhesh-Varshney mentioned this pull request Aug 25, 2025

Create Collection Endpoint (User Option + Auto-Creation) #1209

Merged

		collection.post("/:id", authenticateUser, saveProject);


		export default collection; No newline at end of file

Backend: Save a New Project to an Existing Collection (or Auto create the collection) #1207

Backend: Save a New Project to an Existing Collection (or Auto create the collection) #1207

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Vriti62 commented Aug 23, 2025

Project Published URL 🔗

Describe the add-ons or changes you've made 📃

Screenshots 📷

Type of change ☑️

Note to reviewers 📄

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netlify bot commented Aug 23, 2025 •

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