this.userId is undefined after Meteor.loginWithFacebook

Question

What am I missing? I have this publisher in server folder:

Meteor.publish("myBooks", () => {
    console.log(this.userId);
    return Books.find({
        owner: this.userId
    });
});

this.userId is always undefined, whether I'm logged in or not. I use Meteor.loginWithFacebook call (in the client folder) to log in with my profile.

Answer 1

You are using the fat arrow syntax for defining the function which ties this to the lexical scope, i.e. the gloabal scope, or the scope of the nearest parent function, in case of NodeJS. Since there probably isn't a userId defined in the parent scope, you are seeing this.userId to be undefined.

Use the function form to fix the context (i.e. this) in your code:

Meteor.publish("myBooks", function () {
    console.log(this.userId);
    return Books.find({
        owner: this.userId
    });
});