swift showing posts from all firebase users - ios

Question

I need to create a UISearchController using firebase as the backend. I currently have two users in firebase. One user has made one post and the other has made four posts. I will like to be able to search for the title of all of the books in my database (which is five). However, as of now, I can only search for the books the current signed in user uploaded. Below is a screenshot of what my database looks like and what my code currently looks like.
databaseRef.child("posts").child(userID!).observe(.childAdded, with: { (snapshot) in
let key = snapshot.key
let snapshot = snapshot.value as? NSDictionary
snapshot?.setValue(key, forKey: "uid")
if(key == self.loggedUser?.uid)
{
print("same as logged in user")
}
else
{
self.usersArray.append(snapshot)
self.followUsersTableView.insertRows(at: [IndexPath(row:self.usersArray.count-1,section:0)], with: UITableViewRowAnimation.automatic)
}
}) { (error) in
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
}

Answer 1

You will need a different parent node called Books :-
Right now your JSON is something like this :-
posts : {
userID1 : {
BOOK_11_ID : {.....}
};
userID2 : {
BOOK_21_ID : {.....},
BOOK_22_ID : {.....},
BOOK_23_ID : {.....},
BOOK_24_ID : {.....},
}
}
You gotta modify your database JSON structure to :-
posts : {
Users_books :{
userID1 : {
BOOK_11 : true // Value 'true' means that this user
// has subscribed or bought this book or whatever
};
userID2 : {
BOOK_21 : true,
BOOK_22 : true,
BOOK_23 : true,
BOOK_24 : true,
}
},
Books:{
BOOK_11_ID : {/Book details/};
BOOK_21_ID : {/Book details/};
BOOK_22_ID : {/Book details/};
BOOK_23_ID : {/Book details/};
BOOK_24_ID : {/Book details/};
}
}
Modify your security rules for section 'Book' to make is visible to all the authenticated users.
{
"rules" :{
"Users_books" : {
".write" : "auth != null && auth.uid === $uid", // Will allow only the user to make any change within its node and no-one else
".read": "auth != null && auth.uid === $uid"
},
"Books" : {
".write" : "auth != null", // Will allow all the users that are authenticated to your app to access every books detail.
".read" : "auth != null"
}
}
}
Now what you gotta do is :-
1) If its the user that is creating the book ; Then store the book details in the parent node 'Books' under the books uid and set the value of book_ID to true in the users node.
2) If the database is all backend i.e you input it; Whenever the user subscribe's or buys a books just fetch the uid of that book and set it to true in the section of that user.
PS : Always fan out your database ; its much easier to search from it .Although i am pretty sure you are gonna wanna store some personal details of the user in the near future so for that just make another node . Name it 'Users', security rules will be same as 'Users_books' and under 'Users' parent node append details of every which user with their uid as their key.