Node.js "cannot set property firstName of undefined" - mysql

Question

I am following this tutorial,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnuC3VtEQks
to create a login system for my node app, only thing is since he is using mongoDb and I'm using mySql, I had to think of a way around him setting up his mongoose schema (right around 7:14 of the video), so I just exported a user module and assigned properties to it in my create a user logic.
Here's the user module
//user.js in models
var bcrypt = require('bcryptjs');
var User = {
firstName: "firstName",
lastName: "lastName",
email: "email",
username: "username",
password: "password",
}
module.exports = User;
module.exports.createUser = function(newUser, callback){
bcrypt.genSalt(10, function(err, salt) {
bcrypt.hash(newUser.password, salt, function(err, hash) {
newUser.password = hash;
newUser.save(callback);
});
});
}
Here is my route for the registration form
// main.js in router folder
var user = require('../models/user').User;
router.post('/register', function(req, res){
var firstName = req.body.firstName;
var lastName = req.body.lastName;
var email = req.body.email;
var username = req.body.username;
var password = req.body.password;
var cpassword = req.body.cpassword;
//Validation
// req.checkBody('firstName', 'First name is required!').notEmpty();
// req.checkBody('lastName', 'Last name is required!').notEmpty();
// req.checkBody('email', 'E-mail is invalid!').isEmail();
// req.checkBody('username', 'Username is required!').notEmpty();
// req.checkBody('password', 'Password is required!').notEmpty();
// req.checkBody('cpassword', 'Passwords do not match!').equals(password);
var errors = req.validationErrors();
if(errors){
res.render('register', {
errors: errors
});
console.log(errors);
} else {
var newUser = user;
newUser.firstName = firstName;
newUser.lastName = lastName;
newUser.email = email;
newUser.username = username;
newUser.password = password;
User.createUser(newUser, function(err, user){
if(err) throw err;
console.log(user);
});
req.flash('success_msg', 'You are now registered!');
res.redirect('login');
}
});
Now I keep getting "cannot set property firstName of undefined error", but I thought I had access to my User object from the user.js module? From what I can tell it looks like he's just using the form input to instantiate the user object and create it with some password hashing.
If this is a bad approach, I am completely open to any ideas to make this simpler. I am completely new to node and my senior project is due in 2 weeks, so any help will be immensely appreciated and rewarded with upvotes and internet credits :)

Answer 1

You should change your user.js as follows:
//user.js in models
var bcrypt = require('bcryptjs');
var User = {
firstName: "firstName",
lastName: "lastName",
email: "email",
username: "username",
password: "password",
}
module.exports = {
User: User,
createUser: function (newUser, callback) {
bcrypt.genSalt(10, function (err, salt) {
bcrypt.hash(newUser.password, salt, function (err, hash) {
newUser.password = hash;
newUser.save(callback);
});
});
}
}
This would solve all of your problems.

Answer 2

You declare (and export) the object User (with a capital U) earlier in the program, but later on try and access the variable user, which is undefined
var newUser = user;