The documentation does not have any examples on how to add a subcollection to a document. I know how to add document to a collection and how to add data to a document, but how do I add a collection (subcollection) to a document?
Shouldn't there be some method like this:
dbRef.document("example").addCollection("subCollection")
Edit 13 Jan 2021:
According to the updated documentation regarding array membership, now it is possible to filter data based on array values using whereArrayContains() method. A simple example would be:
CollectionReference citiesRef = db.collection("cities");
citiesRef.whereArrayContains("regions", "west_coast");
This query returns every city document where the regions field is an array that contains west_coast. If the array has multiple instances of the value you query on, the document is included in the results only once.
Assuming we have a chat application that has a database structure that looks similar to this:
To write a subCollection in a document, please use the following code:
DocumentReference messageRef = db
.collection("rooms").document("roomA")
.collection("messages").document("message1");
Creating a messages collection and calling addDocument() 1000 times will be expensive for sure, but this is how Firestore works. You can switch to Firebase Realtime Database if you want where the number of writes doesn't matter. But regarding Supported Data Types in Firestore, in fact, you can use an array because it is supported. In Firebase Realtime database you could also use an array, but this is an anti-pattern. One of the many reasons Firebase recommends against using arrays is that it makes the security rules impossible to write.
Cloud Firestore can store arrays, but it does not support querying array members or updating single array elements. However, you can still model this kind of data by leveraging the other capabilities of the Cloud Firestore. Here is the documentation where it is very well explained.
You also cannot create a subcollection with 1000 messages, add all of them to the database, and expect it to be considered a single record. It will be considered one write operation for every message, in total 1000 operations. The picture above does not show how to retrieve data, it shows a database structure in which you have something like this:
collection -> document -> subCollection -> document
Here's a variation where the subcollection is storing ID values at the collection level, rather than within a document where the subcollection is a field there with additional data.
This is useful for connecting a 1-to-Many ID mapping w/out having to drill through an additional document:
function fireAddStudentToClassroom(studentUserId, classroomId) {
var db = firebase.firestore();
var studentsClassroomRef =
db.collection('student_class').doc(classroomId)
.collection('students');
studentsClassroomRef
.doc(studentUserId)
.set({})
.then(function () {
console.log('Document Added ');
})
.catch(function (error) {
console.error('Error adding document: ', error);
});
}
Thanks to #Alex's answer
This answer a bit off from the original question here, where it explicitly asks for adding a collection to a document. However, after searching for a solution for this scenario and not finding any mention in docs or on SO, this post seems like a reasonable place to share the findings
Here's my code:
firebase.firestore().collection($scope.longLanguage + 'Words').doc($scope.word).set(wordData)
.then(function() {
console.log("Collection added to Firestore!");
var promises = [];
promises.push(firebase.firestore().collection($scope.longLanguage + 'Words').doc($scope.word).collection('AudioSources').doc($scope.accentDialect).set(accentDialectObject));
promises.push(firebase.firestore().collection($scope.longLanguage + 'Words').doc($scope.word).collection('FunFacts').doc($scope.longLanguage).set(funFactObject));
promises.push(firebase.firestore().collection($scope.longLanguage + 'Words').doc($scope.word).collection('Translations').doc($scope.translationLongLanguage).set(translationObject));
Promise.all(promises).then(function() {
console.log("All subcollections were added!");
})
.catch(function(error){
console.log("Error adding subcollections to Firestore: " + error);
});
})
.catch(function(error){
console.log("Error adding document to Firestore: " + error);
});
This makes a collection EnglishWords, which has a document of. The document of has three subcollections: AudioSources (recordings of the word in American and British accents), FunFacts, and Translations. The subcollection Translations has one document: Spanish. The Spanish document has three key-value pairs, telling you that 'de' is the Spanish translation of 'of'.
The first line of the code creates the collection EnglishWords. We wait for the promise to resolve with .then, and then we create the three subcollections. Promise.all tells us when all three subcollections are set.
IMHO, I use arrays in Firestore when the entire array is uploaded and downloaded together, i.e., I don't need to access individual elements. For example, an array of the letters of the word 'of' would be ['o', 'f']. The user can ask, "How do I spell 'of'?" The user isn't going to ask, "What's the second letter in 'of'?"
I use collections when I need to access individual elements, a.k.a. documents. With the older Firebase Realtime Database, I had to download arrays and then iterate through the arrays with forEach to get the element I wanted. This was a lot of code, and with a deep data structure and/or large arrays I was downloading tons of data that I didn't need, and slowing my app running forEach loops on large arrays. Firestore puts the iterators in the database, on their end, so that I can request a single element and it sends me just that element, saving me bandwidth and making my app run faster. This might not matter for a web app, if your computer has a broadband connection, but for mobile apps with poor data connections and slow devices this is important.
Here are two pictures of my Firestore:
From the docs:
You do not need to "create" or "delete" collections. After you create the first document in a collection, the collection exists. If you delete all of the documents in a collection, it no longer exists.
Here i faced the same issue and solve with the answere of #Thomas David Kehoe
db.collection("First collection Name").doc("Id of the document").collection("Nested collection Name").add({
//your data
}).then((data) => {
console.log(data.id);
console.log("Document has added")
}).catch((err) => {
console.log(err)
})
too late for an answer but here is what worked for me,
mFirebaseDatabaseReference?.collection("conversations")?.add(Conversation("User1"))
?.addOnSuccessListener { documentReference ->
Log.d(TAG, "DocumentSnapshot written with ID: " + documentReference.id)
mFirebaseDatabaseReference?.collection("conversations")?.document(documentReference.id)?.collection("messages")?.add(Message(edtMessage?.text.toString()))
}?.addOnFailureListener { e ->
Log.w(TAG, "Error adding document", e)
}
add success listener for adding document and use firebase generated ID for a path.
Use this ID for the complete path for a new collection you want to add.
I.E. - dbReference.collection('yourCollectionName').document(firebaseGeneratedID).collection('yourCollectionName').add(yourDocumentPOJO/Object)
Okay so I recently faced a similar problem given the recent update in the firebase/firestore documentation.
And here is a solution that worked for me
const sendMessage = async () => {
await setDoc(doc(db, COLLECTION_NAME, projectId, SUB_COLLECTION_NAME, nanoid()), {
text:'this is a sample text',
createdAt: serverTimestamp(),
name: currentUser?.firstName + ' ' + currentUser?.lastName,
photoUrl: currentUser?.photoUrl,
userId: currentUser?.id,
});
}
You can find a similar example in the docs
https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/data-model#web-version-9_3
chat room
If you wish to listen for live update you can use a similar method as follows
const messagesRef = collection(db, COLLECTION_NAME, projectId, SUB_COLLECTION_NAME)
const liveUpdate = async () => {
const queryObj = query(messagesRef, orderBy("createdAt"), limit(25));
onSnapshot(queryObj, (querySnapshot) => {
const msgArr: any = [];
querySnapshot.forEach((doc) => {
msgArr.push({ id: doc.id, ...doc.data() })
});
console.log(msgArr);
});
}
There is no separate method to add sub-collection into the document.
You can just call the collection method itself.
If the collection exists it will reference that otherwise create a new one.
dbRef.document("example").collection("subCollection")
This should be extremely simple but for some reason it doesn't seem to work. I'm trying to pull the URLs of display placements using the DISPLAY_PERFORMANCE_REPORT but instead of URLs it's just returning "--".
The code I'm using is:
var report = AdWordsApp.report(
"SELECT CampaignName, Clicks, FinalAppUrls, FinalUrls " +
"FROM PLACEMENT_PERFORMANCE_REPORT " +
"WHERE Clicks > 0 " +
"DURING LAST_30_DAYS");
var rows = report.rows();
while (rows.hasNext()) {
var row = rows.next();
var url = row["FinalUrls"];
Logger.log(url);
}
I've tried logging the CampaignName and clicks and they're working as expected, so can't understand what the issue is here. The only thing I can think of is that in the reference guide it says:
List of final URLs of the main object of this row. UrlList elements
are returned in JSON list format
I'm not entirely sure what JSON list format is, but when I log the typeof url it says it's a string, so thought it shouldn't be an issue.
The FinalAppUrls and FinalUrls list the target URLs that you set on the individual managed placements.
If you're interested in the URL (domain, rather) of the placement itself, you'll have to request either the Criteria or the DisplayName field in your report——they both contain the domain of the placement.
I'm trying to update Firebase Database with email as value.
But Swift 3 "updateChildValues" method fails with an error: Invalid key in object. Keys must be non-empty and cannot contain '.' '#' '$' '[' or ']''
The code is:
let key = emailQueueRef.childByAutoId()
if user.email != nil {
inviteUpdate["\(key)"] = user.email!
}
emailQueueRef.updateChildValues(inviteUpdate)
Possibly, it fail because of dots in email. In other hand, encoding it into Base64 didn't fix it.
In the same time using "setValue" method works:
emailQueueRef.childByAutoId().setValue(user.email!)
But this approach is not quite good for me as I make it with several paths simultaneously.
I didn't find anything about that case in Firebase guides and docs
Is it a Firebase bug, or I misunderstood something?
The issue is the inviteUpdate string.
The string contains illegal characters but it's not the period . causing the problem. It's the ["(key)"] portion.
the var key is a Firebase DatabaseReference
The key you are trying to write to Firebase looks like this
["https://your_app.firebaseio.com/email_node/-KorK9Io5Y2XejgLInvj": "dude#someemail.com"]
It's not clear from the question what the actual Firebase structure should be but I think what you want is this
let key = emailQueueRef.childByAutoId()
if user.email != nil {
inviteUpdate[key.key] = user.email! //note key.key
}
emailQueueRef.updateChildValues(inviteUpdate)
which then writes this to Firebase
"-KorOLfUa9HvgDIcpIyg": "dude#thing.com"
I am going to urge you to not use email addresses as keys as it can lead to a lot of work later on.
For example, if a user changes their email address. You then need to totally delete the user node that uses it as a key, and re-write it. At the same time, anywhere else that references that key will also have to be changed.
It's usually much better to include the email as a child node
uid_0
email: "dude#someemail.com"
and then other areas can simply refer to uid_0.
After some attempt I've found my main error. I got DatabaseReference with childByAutoId() and I just missed one additional step in the guide, to get the key itself.
The resulting code is:
let keyRef = emailQueueRef.childByAutoId()
let key = keyRef.key
if user.email != nil {
inviteUpdate[key] = user.email!
}
emailQueueRef.updateChildValues(inviteUpdate)
Finally that helped.
I'm developing an app using Grails. I want to get length of array.
I got a wrong value. Here is my code,
def Medias = params.medias
println params.medias // I got [37, 40]
println params.medias.size() // I got 7 but it should be 2
What I did wrong ?
Thanks for help.
What is params.medias (where is it being set)?
If Grials is treating it as a string, then using size() will return the length of the string, rather than an array.
Does:
println params.medias.length
also return 7?
You can check what Grails thinks an object is by using the assert keyword.
If it is indeed a string, you can try the following code to convert it into an array:
def mediasArray = Eval.me(params.medias)
println mediasArray.size()
The downside of this is that Eval presents the possibility of unwanted code execution if the params.medias is provided by an end user, or can be maliciously modified outside of your compiled code.
A good snippet on the "evil (or lack thereof) of eval" is here if you're interested (not mine):
https://javascriptweblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/how-evil-is-eval/
I think 7 is result of length of the string : "[37,40]"
Seems your media variable is an array not a collection
Try : params.medias.length
Thanks to everyone. I've found my mistake
First of all, I sent an array from client and my params.medias returned null,so I converted it to string but it is a wrong way.
Finally, I sent and array from client as array and in the grails, I got a params by
params."medias[]"
List medias = params.list('medias')
Documentation: http://grails.github.io/grails-doc/latest/guide/single.html#typeConverters
Is like or rlike supported for searching a string in a collection's property value?
Does the collection need to define text type index for this to work? Unfortunately I can not create a text index for the property. There are 100 million documents and text index killed the performance (MongoDB is on single node). If this is not do-able without text index, its fine with me. I will look for alternatives.
Given below collection:
Message {
'payload' : 'XML or JSON string'
//few other properties
}
In grails, I created a Criteria to return me a list of documents which contain a specific string in the payload
Message.list {
projections {
like('payload' : searchString)
}
}
I tried using rlike('payload' : ".*${searchString}.*") as well. It did not result in any doc to me.
Note: I was able to get the document when I fired the native query on Mongo shell.
db.Message.find({payload : { $regex : ".*My search string.*" }}).pretty()
I got it working in a round about way. I believe there is a much better grails solution. Criteria approach did not work. So used the low level API converted the DBObjects to Domain objects.
def query = ['payload' : [ '$regex' : /${searchString}/ ] ]
def dbObjects = Message.collection.find(query).skip(offset).limit(defaultPageSize).toArray()
dbObjects?.collect { new Message(new JsonSlurper().parseText(it.toString()))}