How to exclude all Join fields from loading data in the Local API find() operation?

[MurzNN]

Let's get a simple example: Posts with the Relationship field category and Categories with the Join field relatedPosts.

In the app/posts/[id]/page.tsx component, I load a post, using payload.findByID() with depth=0, and have there the category ID value from the post.category field. I don't want to load all references by relationship fields, just the direct post fields only.

Then, in the "Category" UI component, I have the category ID and need to load that category with depth=1, because the category contains a media (image) that should be displayed.

But, with depth=1, Payload will load not only media, but also all posts by the relatedPosts Join field. But I don't need to load all posts to display the category component; I just want to have the Category document itself.

I know that I can use "select" property to list the needed fields manually, but I just want to load the document without all "Join" fields, because usually "Join" fields contain additional data, that is not directly related to the document.

So, is there a dedicated property for the payload.find() operation to disable making additional DB queries to load data for all "Join" fields?

[andershermansen]

You can use select with false values to get everything except certain fields. So you can do:

select: {
    relatedPosts: false
}

[MurzNN]

Wow, didn't know this, thank you! Thought that if I add this parameter, I have to explicitly list all fields that I want to get; there are no examples of that usage in the documentation here: https://payloadcms.com/docs/local-api/overview

But still, developers need to remember to exclude join fields manually on each call, which is not very convenient. But, better than nothing! ;)

[andershermansen]

Documentation is here https://payloadcms.com/docs/queries/select#local-api

[andershermansen]

Actually looking at the documentation again it’s a possibility to pass joins: false, which seems to do what you want. See https://payloadcms.com/docs/fields/join#query-options

[MurzNN]

Wow, that is exactly what I wanted, thank you a lot! Missed in the documentation 🙈 I should start reading the documentation more carefully! 🧐

[andershermansen]

Happy to help 🤩