freeCodeCamp/curriculum/challenges/english/05-back-end-development-and-apis/mongodb-and-mongoose/perform-classic-updates-by-running-find-edit-then-save.md

---
id: 587d7fb8367417b2b2512c0e
title: 'Perform Classic Updates by Running Find, Edit, then Save'
challengeType: 2
forumTopicId: 301541
dashedName: perform-classic-updates-by-running-find-edit-then-save
---

# --description--

In the good old days, this was what you needed to do if you wanted to edit a document, and be able to use it somehow (e.g. sending it back in a server response). Mongoose has a dedicated updating method: `Model.update()`. It is bound to the low-level mongo driver. It can bulk-edit many documents matching certain criteria, but it doesn’t send back the updated document, only a 'status' message. Furthermore, it makes model validations difficult, because it just directly calls the mongo driver.

# --instructions--

Modify the `findEditThenSave` function to find a person by `_id` (use any of the above methods) with the parameter `personId` as search key. Add `"hamburger"` to the list of the person's `favoriteFoods` (you can use `Array.push()`). Then - inside the find callback - `save()` the updated `Person`.

**Note:** This may be tricky, if in your Schema, you declared `favoriteFoods` as an Array, without specifying the type (i.e. `[String]`). In that case, `favoriteFoods` defaults to Mixed type, and you have to manually mark it as edited using `document.markModified('edited-field')`. See [Mongoose documentation](https://mongoosejs.com/docs/schematypes.html#Mixed)

# --hints--

Find-edit-update an item should succeed

```js
(getUserInput) =>
  $.post(getUserInput('url') + '/_api/find-edit-save', {
    name: 'Poldo',
    age: 40,
    favoriteFoods: ['spaghetti']
  }).then(
    (data) => {
      assert.equal(data.name, 'Poldo', 'item.name is not what is expected');
      assert.equal(data.age, 40, 'item.age is not what expected');
      assert.deepEqual(
        data.favoriteFoods,
        ['spaghetti', 'hamburger'],
        'item.favoriteFoods is not what expected'
      );
      assert.equal(data.__v, 1, 'The item should be previously edited');
    },
    (xhr) => {
      throw new Error(xhr.responseText);
    }
  );
```

# --solutions--

```js
/**
  Backend challenges don't need solutions, 
  because they would need to be tested against a full working project. 
  Please check our contributing guidelines to learn more.
*/
```