Updating Firebase Data for Any User in Swift - swift

Question

I am trying to allow documents (reports) that are created by a user to be viewed by other users and then updated with changes. The documents show up in a tableView that when selected show the appropriate data for that specific report loaded up in a ViewController. However when I go to select the update button within that ViewController of the individual report, the error comes back that no document can be found.
Below is the current variation of code I am working with for the update function.
private let database = Firestore.firestore()
private init() {}
// UPDATE REPORT
public func updateTheData(
reportPost: ReportPost,
thisReport: String,
completion: #escaping (Bool) -> Void
){
let data = [
"id": reportPost.identifier,
"title": reportPost.title,
"timestamp1": reportPost.timestamp1,
"address": reportPost.address,
"customerPO": reportPost.customerPO,
"authNum": reportPost.authNum,
"contactName": reportPost.contactName,
"contactPhone": reportPost.contactPhone,
"modelNum": reportPost.modelNum,
"serialNum": reportPost.serialNum,
"addInfo": reportPost.addInfo,
"equipProblem": reportPost.equipProblem,
"action": reportPost.action,
"followUp": reportPost.followUp,
"techName1": reportPost.techName1,
"techName2": reportPost.techName2,
"techName3": reportPost.techName3,
"techName4": reportPost.techName4,
"timestamp2": reportPost.timestamp2,
"timestamp3": reportPost.timestamp3,
"timestamp4": reportPost.timestamp4,
"milesTraveled1": reportPost.milesTraveled1,
"milesTraveled2": reportPost.milesTraveled2,
"milesTraveled3": reportPost.milesTraveled3,
"milesTraveled4": reportPost.milesTraveled4,
"travelTime1": reportPost.travelTime1,
"travelTime2": reportPost.travelTime2,
"travelTime3": reportPost.travelTime3,
"travelTime4": reportPost.travelTime4,
"siteTime1": reportPost.siteTime1,
"siteTime2": reportPost.siteTime2,
"siteTime3": reportPost.siteTime3,
"siteTime4": reportPost.siteTime4,
"serviceType1": reportPost.serviceType1,
"serviceType2": reportPost.serviceType2,
"serviceType3": reportPost.serviceType3,
"serviceType4": reportPost.serviceType4,
"timeTotal1": reportPost.timeTotal1,
"timeTotal2": reportPost.timeTotal2,
"timeTotal3": reportPost.timeTotal3,
"timeTotal4": reportPost.timeTotal4,
"partNum1": reportPost.partNum1,
"partNum2": reportPost.partNum2,
"partNum3": reportPost.partNum3,
"partNum4": reportPost.partNum4,
"quantity1": reportPost.quantity1,
"quantity2": reportPost.quantity2,
"quantity3": reportPost.quantity3,
"quantity4": reportPost.quantity4,
"price1": reportPost.price1,
"price2": reportPost.price2,
"price3": reportPost.price3,
"price4": reportPost.price4,
"priceTotal1": reportPost.priceTotal1,
"priceTotal2": reportPost.priceTotal2,
"priceTotal3": reportPost.priceTotal3,
"priceTotal4": reportPost.priceTotal4,
]
let docRef = database.collection("reports").document(thisReport)
docRef.updateData(data) { error in
if let error = error {
print("Error updating document: \(error)")
} else {
print("Document successfully updated")
}
}
}
For Reference, this is how a report is saved and uploaded to the database in Firebase.
// FSR REPORT POSTING
public func insert(
reportPost: ReportPost,
email: String,
completion: #escaping (Bool) -> Void
) {
let userEmail = email
.replacingOccurrences(of: ".", with: "_")
.replacingOccurrences(of: "#", with: "_")
let data = [
"id": reportPost.identifier,
"title": reportPost.title,
"timestamp1": reportPost.timestamp1,
"address": reportPost.address,
"customerPO": reportPost.customerPO,
"authNum": reportPost.authNum,
"contactName": reportPost.contactName,
"contactPhone": reportPost.contactPhone,
"modelNum": reportPost.modelNum,
"serialNum": reportPost.serialNum,
"addInfo": reportPost.addInfo,
"equipProblem": reportPost.equipProblem,
"action": reportPost.action,
"followUp": reportPost.followUp,
"techName1": reportPost.techName1,
"techName2": reportPost.techName2,
"techName3": reportPost.techName3,
"techName4": reportPost.techName4,
"timestamp2": reportPost.timestamp2,
"timestamp3": reportPost.timestamp3,
"timestamp4": reportPost.timestamp4,
"milesTraveled1": reportPost.milesTraveled1,
"milesTraveled2": reportPost.milesTraveled2,
"milesTraveled3": reportPost.milesTraveled3,
"milesTraveled4": reportPost.milesTraveled4,
"travelTime1": reportPost.travelTime1,
"travelTime2": reportPost.travelTime2,
"travelTime3": reportPost.travelTime3,
"travelTime4": reportPost.travelTime4,
"siteTime1": reportPost.siteTime1,
"siteTime2": reportPost.siteTime2,
"siteTime3": reportPost.siteTime3,
"siteTime4": reportPost.siteTime4,
"serviceType1": reportPost.serviceType1,
"serviceType2": reportPost.serviceType2,
"serviceType3": reportPost.serviceType3,
"serviceType4": reportPost.serviceType4,
"timeTotal1": reportPost.timeTotal1,
"timeTotal2": reportPost.timeTotal2,
"timeTotal3": reportPost.timeTotal3,
"timeTotal4": reportPost.timeTotal4,
"partNum1": reportPost.partNum1,
"partNum2": reportPost.partNum2,
"partNum3": reportPost.partNum3,
"partNum4": reportPost.partNum4,
"quantity1": reportPost.quantity1,
"quantity2": reportPost.quantity2,
"quantity3": reportPost.quantity3,
"quantity4": reportPost.quantity4,
"price1": reportPost.price1,
"price2": reportPost.price2,
"price3": reportPost.price3,
"price4": reportPost.price4,
"priceTotal1": reportPost.priceTotal1,
"priceTotal2": reportPost.priceTotal2,
"priceTotal3": reportPost.priceTotal3,
"priceTotal4": reportPost.priceTotal4,
]
database
.collection("users")
.document(userEmail)
.collection("reports")
.document(reportPost.identifier)
.setData(data) { error in
completion(error == nil)
}
}

Answer 1

When the report is first inserted, it's stored at this path
database.collection("users")
.document(userEmail)
.collection("reports")
.document(reportPost.identifier)
.setData(data)
which is
users/the_email/reports/some id
but then when you're attempting to update that report it's at this path
database.collection("reports")
.document(thisReport)
.updateData(data)
which is
database/reports/some id
and that's two different locations.
To update data, it needs to point to the same document reference. so the data needs to be updated at the same location it was initially written to
database.collection("users")
.document(userEmail)
.collection("reports")
.document(reportPost.identifier)
.updateData(data) //<- same path as it was initially
As a side note, the documentId is both being stored as the documentId as well as within the document in the "id" field and there's no reason to do that. A documentId is static and if it's known, you can get to that data directly without a query.
I would also suggest not using users emails as documentIds'; user emails can change and if that happens you won't be able to find the report. Additionally, if you want to update that, you'll have to find every occurance of that old email in the entire database, read it and it's child data in, delete it and re-write it. What a pain.
Also, substituting _ for # and . in the email address may work to a point but if want to get back that email address, there could be multiple _ in the address; how would you know which _ was the # and which one was actually part of the email address.
some_person#thing.com -> some_person_thing_com = some#person_thing.com?
EDIT
Per the question, suppose there are a series of reports that are 1) shared amongst users 2) the creating user can edit their own reports
Here's one option for storing the reports
reports (collection)
document_0 //a document with an auto-generated documentId
created_by_uid: "uid_0"
report_info: "some info about this report, fields etc"
document_1
created_by_uid: "uid_1"
report_info: "some info about this report"
The reports collection can be read by any user, which meets criteria 1. It's easy to get the reports created by user with uid_0 as a simple query can be run against the reports collection where created_by_uid = uid_0.
Here's the code with an object to hold the report data: documentId the report_info (the report data) and a field to track who created the report. Suppose user with uid_0 is logged in and wants to edit a report. We'll load all of the reports uid_0 created and store them in an array:
class ReportClass {
var id = ""
var report_info = ""
var created_by_uid = ""
}
var reportArray = [ReportClass]()
func readReports(forUid: String) { //pass in uid_0
let reportsCollection = self.db.collection("reports")
reportsCollection.whereField("created_by_uid", isEqualTo: forUid)
reportsCollection.getDocuments(completion: {documentSnapshot, error in
for doc in documentSnapshot!.documents {
//note we don't need the created_by_uid because it's not going to change
let report = ReportClass()
//keep track of the document Id
report.id = doc.documentID as! String
//the report info which the user is changing
report.report_info = doc.get("report_info") as! String
self.reportArray.append(report)
}
})
}
now the reports are presented to the user so they can select one and edit it. Upon saving we update the ReportClass object report_info field with the new data the user input and pass the object to a function to update that report
func updateReport(theReport: ReportClass) {
let reportsCollection = self.db.collection("reports")
let thisReport = reportsCollection.document(theReport.id)
//the report document path is reports/documentId
thisReport.updateData(["report_info": theReport.info]) //only update the report_info field
}
The key here is we load in and store the users reports, keeping the report documentId in the object. That keeps track of the path to the report
reports/report id/id, report_info and created_by_uid fields
then when the report is ready to be written, we derive the path from the documentId stored in the object so the path is the same.
I did a lot of this long-hand, but you should be using Codable objects as it makes populating them a snap
See Mapping Firestore Data in Swift