Firebase Firestore has a reference type while defining fields of a document which allows us to add a reference to another document via its "Document path".
For example, I have the document animals/3OYc0QTbGOTRkhXeiW0t, with a field name having value Zebra. I reference it in the array animals, of document zoo/xmo5wX0MLUEbfFJHvKq6. I am basically storing a list of animals in a zoo, by referring the animals to the corresponding animal document in the animals collections.
Now if I query a specific document from the zoo collection, will references to the animals be automatically resolved? Will I the get the animal names in the query result? If not, how can I achieve this?
All document queries in Firestore are shallow, meaning that you only get one document in return for each document requested.
References in a document are not automatically fetched - you will have to make subsequent queries using the references in the document to get those other documents on your own.
Same thing with documents in subcollections - they require separate queries.
Related
How does one filter a Firestore collection by a document reference in the web console? For example, I have a collection that references another collection document called challenges.
But no matter what combination I use to try to filter that collection by the challenge ID it returns no results. I need to be able to do this so I can look at all of the documents in this collection that reference back to that particular challenge reference.
I am assuming this is possible in the console, but maybe it is not?
There is a way to batch get documents after you specified exactly all the file paths using
https://firestore.googleapis.com/v1/projects/projectName/databases/dbName/documents:batchGet.
And there is a way to get all documents and their fields under a collection by sending a GET to https://firestore.googleapis.com/v1/projects/projectName/databases/dbName/documents/collectionName
I ideally want to make a batch request to get document fields for all documents under an array of collections. Is there a way to do this without knowing the document names of every document I intend to get?
Example
I have a structure like projects/projectName/databases/dbName/documents/Inventory/productId/variantId/*location*
Each productId is a document, and under this it has a collection for each variant, and within that collection are documents for each location, that contains a field count.
For a basket, I want to get all inventory counts for all inventory locations, for each productId/variantId in that bas
It is not possible to get all documents based on an array of collection names.
You can use a collection group query and search all collections of a given name, but then you must know the path of each document you want to read.
Alternatively, you can get all documents under a specific path, but then you can't filter by ID anymore, and the collections have to be under a path - not an array.
My firm asked me to get all the documents from the root collection, users. They must be sorted according to the value of a numeric field, titled amount, present in a first sub-level document and also in a second sub-level document.
I don't know how to fulfill this aim easily with Firestore NoSQL queries. What would you recommend to me?
Data structure
Here it is:
users
user_1 (document to get and sort)
user_2 (document to get and sort)
Each of these two users is structured like this:
collection_1
document_of_first_level
contains this field: amount
and contains also this collection: collection_2
document_of_second_level
contains this field: amount
So I should get a list containing user_1 and user_2. This is a sorted list. It's sorted according to the two fields both named amount, which are contained under user_1, but also under user_2. These both fields are nested.
They must be sorted according to the value of a numeric field, titled amount, present in a first sub-level document and also in a second sub-level document.
As also #DougStevenson mentioned in his comment, you cannot achieve this with Cloud Firestore. There is no way to get documents from a subcollection (level 1) and another subcollection (level 2) in a single query. Firestore doesn't support queries across different subcollections in one go. Queries in Firestore are shallow, which means they only get items from the collection that the query is run against. A single query may only use properties of documents in a single collection.
So the most simple solution I can think of, would be to query the database twice, once to get the documents within subcollection (level 1) and second to get documents within subcollection (level 2) and then compare them client side.
The idea from your comment is a solution since adding a property under the level 1 document will allow you to query the database just once. In Firestore, you can simply chain multiple where() functions in a single query.
When using the Firebase console it is possible to see all documents and collections, even subcollections where the path has "documents" that do not exist.
This is illustrated in the picture included here, and as stated in the docs and on the screenshot as well. These documents won't appear in queries or snapshots. So how does the console find these nested subcollections, when a query does not return them?
Is it possible, somehow, to list these documents. Since the console can do it, it seems there must be a way.
And if it is possible to find these documents, is it possible to create a query that fetches all the documents that are non-existant but limited to those that have a nested subcollection? (Since the set of all non-existant documents would be infinite)
The Admin SDK provides a listDocuments method with this description:
The document references returned may include references to "missing
documents", i.e. document locations that have no document present but
which contain subcollections with documents. Attempting to read such a
document reference (e.g. via .get() or .onSnapshot()) will return a
DocumentSnapshot whose .exists property is false.
Combining this with the example for listing subcollections, you could do something like the following:
// Admin SDK only
let collectionRef = firestore.collection('col');
return collectionRef.listDocuments().then(documentRefs => {
return firestore.getAll(documentRefs);
}).then(documentSnapshots => {
documentSnapshots.forEach(doc => {
if( !doc.exists ) {
console.log(`Found missing document: ${documentSnapshot.id}, getting subcollections`);
doc.getCollections().then(collections => {
collections.forEach(collection => {
console.log('Found subcollection with id:', collection.id);
});
});
}
});
});
Note that the Firebase CLI uses a different approach. Via the REST API, it queries all documents below a given path, without having to know their specific location first. You can see how this works in the recursive delete code here.
Is it possible to create a query that fetches all these subcollections that are nested under a document that does not exist.
Queries in Cloud Firestore are shallow, which means they only get documents from the collection that the query is run against. There is no way in Cloud Firestore to get documents from a top-level collection and other collections or subcollections in a single query. Firestore doesn't support queries across different collections in one go. A single query may only use properties of documents in a single collection or subcollection.
So in your case, even if one document does not exist (does not contain any properties), you can still query a collection that lives beneath it. With other words, you can query the queue subcollection that exist within -LFNX ... 7UjS document but you cannot query all queue subcollection within all documents. You can query only one subcollection at a time.
Edit:
According to your comment:
I want to find collections that are nested under documents that do not exist.
There is no way to find collections because you cannot query across different collections. You can only query against one. The simplest solution I can think of is to check if a document within your items collection doesn't exist (has no properties) and then create a query (items -> documentId -> queue), and check if has any results.
Edit2:
The Firebase Console is telling you through those document ids shown in italics that those documents just does not exist. Those documents do not exist because you didn't create them at all. What you did do, was only to create a subcollection under a document that never existed in the first place. With other words, it merely "reserves" an id for a document in that collection and then creates a subcollection under it. Typically, you should only create subcollections of documents that actually do exist but this is how it looks like when the document doesn't exist.
In Cloud Firestore documents and subcollections don't work like filesystem files and directories you're used. If you create a subcollection under a document, it doesn't implicitly create any parent documents. Subcollections are not tied in any way to a parent document. With other words, there is no physical document at that location but there is other data under the location.
In Firebase console those document ids are diplayed so you can navigate down the tree and get the subcollections and documents that exist beneath it. But in the same time the console is warning you that those document does not exist, by displaying their ids in italics. So you cannot display or use them because of the simple fact that there is no data beneath it. If you want to correct that, you have to write at least a property that can hold a value. In that way, those documents will hold some data so you can do whatever you want.
P.S. In Cloud Firestore, if you delete a document, its subcollections will continue to exist and this is because of the exact same reason I mentioned above.
Im looking to have a document, which contains a collection of references to other documents. Like a Project that has a collection of Users, but the entries are Reference types to users from the top level Users collection.
I can't see a way of adding a Reference type to a Collection, It looks like you must create a Document first and then have a field in that doc that is the reference to the user doc - but that is just adding extra work.
When getting the collection data, you will have to first get the Document in the collection, and then using the field for the reference get the User Document.
It would be far simpler to have a nested array of values.
What is the best way to store a collection of references ?
A Reference is a field type, and fields must be in documents. You indeed cannot add References directly to a collection. But from your description I don't think this requires extra dummy documents:
Im looking to have a document, which contains a collection of references to other documents. Like a Project that has a collection of Users, but the entries are Reference types to users from the top level Users collection.
This sounds like you have two top-levels collections: Projects and Users. A document under Projects then has a nested map of user references.
If I misunderstood your model, then indeed: you will need to create a document to store your references to users. This is inherent to the Firestore data model, and can't be changed.