Is Firebase Database searchable using objects instead of references, with AngularFire $firebaseArray $keyAt(recordOrIndex)? - firebase

Question

After a user logs in using $firebaseAuth, Google sends the user's displayName, email, and photoURL. I then want to look up the user's account in my Firebase database. I can't use $getRecord(key) because Google doesn't tell me the user's key. It appears that I should use $keyAt(recordOrIndex), and then use $getRecord(key). $keyAt(recordOrIndex) works fine with an index. $keyAt(recordOrIndex) works fine with a record that I retrieved with $getRecord(key). I can't get $keyAt(recordOrIndex) to work with an object that I made from the user data that Google returned using $firebaseAuth.
I tried both the complete object (displayName, email, photoURL) and an object consisting of only the email address. The latter is what I would prefer to use. Neither worked.
app.controller('LoginModalInstanceCtrl', ['$scope', '$location', '$uibModalInstance', '$firebaseArray', '$firebaseObject', '$firebaseAuth', function($scope, $location, $uibModalInstance, $firebaseArray, $firebaseObject, $firebaseAuth) {
// Create Firebase3 reference
var ref = firebase.database().ref();
// Set up Firebase Auth
$scope.authObj = $firebaseAuth();
var authData = $scope.authObj.$getAuth();
$scope.authData = authData;
// Google OAuth login handler
$scope.loginGoogle = function() {
$scope.authData = null;
$scope.error = null;
$scope.authObj.$signInWithPopup("google")
.then(function(authData) {
$scope.authData = authData;
console.log(authData);
console.log("Your displayName is:", authData.user.displayName);
console.log("Your email is:", authData.user.email);
console.log("Your photoURL is:", authData.user.photoURL);
var record = {
displayName: authData.user.displayName,
email: authData.user.email,
photoURL: authData.user.photoURL
};
var emailObject = {
email: authData.user.email
};
// look up account
var users = $firebaseArray(ref.child('users'));
users.$loaded()
.then(function() {
console.log("Array loaded!");
var key1 = users.$keyAt(1);
console.log(key1); // -Khi6OxAo339ye6xoG3i
var record = users.$getRecord(key1);
console.log(record); // Object with displayName, email, and photoURL
var key1 = users.$keyAt(record);
console.log(key1); // -Khi6OxAo339ye6xoG3i
var objectKey = users.$keyAt(object);
console.log(objectKey); // null
var emailKey = users.$keyAt(emailObject);
console.log(emailKey); // null
});
$uibModalInstance.close(); // close modal window
$location.path('/languagetwo/'); // return to the homepage
}).catch(function(error) {
console.error("Authentication failed:", error);
});
};
Should I use $firebaseObject instead of $firebaseArray:
var user = $firebaseObject(ref.child('users').child( SOMETHING HERE? ));

Answer 1

The answer appears to be no, you can't search Firebase Database using AngularFire. (Maybe AngularFire 2 has search, I didn't look.) What I did instead was to use "plain vanilla" Firebase:
var users = firebase.database().ref('users');
users.orderByChild('email').equalTo(authData.user.email).once('value').then(function(snapshot) {
console.log(snapshot.val());
});
The first line sets up the Firebase ref and is the similar to as before, except that I'm going straight to the users array, instead of using $FirebaseArray to get to the users array.
The second line is a completely different syntax. First, you have to specify the order that you want the returned object to be in. Yes, it returns an object, not an array. I tried snapshot.val().length() and found that it's not an array. What orderByChild('email') does is to access the 'email' property of the objects in the 'users' array.
Next we do the query. equalTo(authData.user.email) returns only the objects in which the email address from $FirebaseAuth equals the email address in our 'users' array.
Next, once('value') creates a promise and waits for the async data. I tried using on() but couldn't get it to work, too many arguments or something. once() requires an argument, which can be value, child_added, child_changed, child_removed, or child_moved. The value argument is for getting data from a location without changing the child nodes.
We can then set up our then promise fulfillment. You can call the returned data anything. Here it's called snapshot.
Lastly snapshot.val() provides the data from the database, looking just like it does in the Firebase Console.