I am trying to call the TwitchAPI and insert some of the returned data into MongoDB. However, every time I get this error: Error: Meteor requires document _id fields to be non-empty strings or ObjectIDs.
The Twitch API response for a single stream/channel looks like this:
{
"streams": [
{
"_id": 11220687552,
"game": "League of Legends",
"viewers": 11661,
"created_at": "2014-09-30T01:10:36Z",
"_links": {
"self": "http://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams/mushisgosu"
},
"preview": {
"small": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/previews-ttv/live_user_mushisgosu-80x50.jpg",
"medium": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/previews-ttv/live_user_mushisgosu-320x200.jpg",
"large": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/previews-ttv/live_user_mushisgosu-640x400.jpg",
"template": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/previews-ttv/live_user_mushisgosu-{width}x{height}.jpg"
},
"channel": {
"_links": {
"self": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu",
"follows": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/follows",
"commercial": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/commercial",
"stream_key": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/stream_key",
"chat": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/chat/mushisgosu",
"features": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/features",
"subscriptions": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/subscriptions",
"editors": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/editors",
"videos": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/videos",
"teams": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/mushisgosu/teams"
},
"background": null,
"banner": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/mushisgosu-channel_header_image-c5c08cce281b7be3-640x125.jpeg",
"display_name": "MushIsGosu",
"game": "League of Legends",
"logo": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/mushisgosu-profile_image-b1c8bb5fd700025e-300x300.png",
"mature": false,
"status": "CLG hi im Gosu - Challenger AD - Smurfing Master!",
"partner": true,
"url": "http://www.twitch.tv/mushisgosu",
"video_banner": "http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/mushisgosu-channel_offline_image-7e3401b20cb5d739-640x360.png",
"_id": 41939266,
"name": "mushisgosu",
"created_at": "2013-03-31T21:12:14Z",
"updated_at": "2014-09-30T03:08:55Z",
"abuse_reported": null,
"delay": 60,
"followers": 318914,
"profile_banner": null,
"profile_banner_background_color": null,
"views": 25963780,
"language": "en-us"
}
}
],
"_total": 8477,
"_links": {
"self": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams?limit=1&offset=0",
"next": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams?limit=1&offset=1",
"featured": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams/featured",
"summary": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams/summary",
"followed": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams/followed"
}
}
The part of my server method that tries to insert the data
Meteor.call('getStreams', function(err, res) {
var data = res.data.streams;
console.log(data);
data.forEach(function(item) {
console.log(item._id);
Streams.insert({
_id: item._id,
title: item.channel.status,
author: item.channel.display_name,
url: item.url
});
});
});
getStreams simple defines the url to call and sets some variable. As you can see I am console logging the expected _id so I know it is returning a valid string but I am still getting the error. Currently, when I make the call I return 100 streams at a time and iterate through them to save the 4 fields above. Ideally, I would like to save each stream object as its own entry in the DB but all my attempts to do that have resulted in the same error and I also read somewhere that the version on "miniMongo" bundled with Meteor does not support inserting an array of objects in bulk...I also have read that miniMong does not support Collection.save() so sadly I think it will be more later to update the contents of each _id with the latest API call info since I cant just use .save to update and insert in the same statement.
I am not sure if it has any impact but I did try setting autoIndexId to false when creating the collection and it doesn't seem to matter:
Streams = new Meteor.Collection('streams', {autoIndexId: false});
Any insight is appreciated.
The problem is that the twitch _id is NOT a String, it appears to be a Number (I can tell by the output of your JSON : the number is not surrounded by quotes).
What I'd do is let Meteor generate its own internal Mongo IDs and store the twitch _id as a separate property instead.
Streams.insert({
twitchId: item._id,
title: item.channel.status,
author: item.channel.display_name,
url: item.url
});
You will have to retrieve the streams by twitchId instead of _id, but it's hardly a problem, right ?