How should I structure my data so it works with firebase? - firebase

Question

I want to update some data in the forms of
wordBank = {
{word:"aprobi", translation:"to approve", count:2},
{word:"bati", translation:"to hit, to beat, to strike", count:1},
{word:"da", translation:"of", count:1}
}
the goal is to able to extract and display all the values of all the keys in each JSON object. How do I create this format on firebase? do I use .update? or something else?
currently I could only get firebase .update() to work with an array but it gives me data like this
wordBank = [
{word:"aprobi", translation:"to approve", count:2},
{word:"bati", translation:"to hit, to beat, to strike", count:1},
{word:"da", translation:"of", count:1}
];
where each word-object is an index in the array.
Here's how I construct my wordObjects:
function getWords() {
if (document.getElementsByClassName("vortarobobelo").length != 0){
var words;
words = document.getElementsByClassName("vortarobobelo")[0].children[0].children;
for (var i =0; i < words.length; i++) {
var localBank = {} //creating the local variable to store the word
var newWord = words[i].children[0].innerText; // getting the word from the DOM
var newTranslation = words[i].children[1].innerText; // getting the translation from the DOM
localBank.word = newWord;
localBank.translation = newTranslation;
localBank.count = 0 //assuming this is the first time the user has clicked on the word
console.log(localBank);
wordBank[localBank.word] = localBank;
fireBank.update(localBank);
}
}
}

Answer 1

If you want to store the items within an object, you need to pick keys to store them against.
You can't store unkeyed values inside an object in Javascript. This would result in a syntax error:
wordBank = {
{word:"aprobi", translation:"to approve", count:2},
{word:"bati", translation:"to hit, to beat, to strike", count:1},
{word:"da", translation:"of", count:1}
}
The other option is to store them in an array, in which case the keys will be automatically assigned as array indices. Just like your second example.
Maybe you want to store the word objects, using the word itself as a key?
wordBank = {
aprobi: {word:"aprobi", translation:"to approve", count:2},
bati: {word:"bati", translation:"to hit, to beat, to strike", count:1},
da: {word:"da", translation:"of", count:1}
}
This would be easy to do with Firebase. Let's say you have all of your word objects as a list.
var ref = new Firebase("your-firebase-url");
wordObjects.forEach(function(wordObject) {
ref.child(wordObject.word).set(wordObject);
});
Or you could create the object with Javascript, then add it to Firebase using .update.
var wordMap = {};
wordObjects.forEach(function(wordObject) {
wordMap[wordObject.word] = wordObject;
});
ref.update(wordMap);