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In Firebase Cloud Firestore, I have "user_goals" in collections and goals may be a predefined goal (master_id: "XXXX") or a custom goal (no "master_id" key)
In JavaScript, I need to write two functions, one to get all predefined goals and other to get all custom goals.
I have got some workaround to get custom goals by setting "master_id" as "" empty string and able to get as below:
db.collection('user_goals')
.where('challenge_id', '==', '') // workaround works
.get()
Still this is not the correct way, I continued to use this for predefined goals where it has a "master_id" as below
db.collection('user_goals')
.where('challenge_id', '<', '') // this workaround
.where('challenge_id', '>', '') // is not working
.get()
Since Firestore has no "!=" operator, I need to use "<" and ">" operator but still no success.
Question: Ignoring these workarounds, what is the preferred way to get docs by checking whether a specific field exists or does not exists?
As #Emile Moureau solution. I prefer
.orderBy(`field`)
To query documents with the field exists. Since it will work with any type of data with any value even for null.
But as #Doug Stevenson said:
You can't query for something that doesn't exist in Firestore. A field needs to exist in order for a Firestore index to be aware of it.
You can't query for documents without the field. At least for now.
The preferred way to get docs where a specified field exists is to use the:
.orderBy(fieldPath)
As specified in the Firebase documentation:
Thus the answer provided by #hisoft is valid. I just decided to provide the official source, as the question was for the preferred way.
Firestore is an indexed database. For each field in a document, that document is inserted into that field's index as appropriate based on your configuration. If a document doesn't contain a particular field (like challenge_id) it will not appear in that field's index and will be omitted from queries on that field. Normally, because of the way Firestore is designed, queries should read an index in one continuous sweep. Prior to the introduction of the != and not-in operators, this meant you couldn't exclude particular values as this would require jumping over sections of an index. This limitation is still encountered when trying to use exclusive ranges (v<2 || v>4) in a single query.
Field values are sorted according to the Realtime Database sort order except that the results can be sorted by multiple fields when duplicates are encountered instead of just the document's ID.
Firestore Value Sort Order
Priority
Sorted Values
Priority
Sorted Values
1
null
6
strings
2
false
7
DocumentReference
3
true
8
GeoPoint
4
numbers
9
arrays
5
Timestamp
10
maps
Inequality !=/<>
This section documents how inequalities worked prior to the release of the != and not-in operators in Sep 2020. See the documentation on how to use these operators. The following section will be left for historical purposes.
To perform an inequality query on Firestore, you must rework your query so that it can be read by reading from Firestore's indexes. For an inequality, this is done by using two queries - one for values less than the equality and another for values greater than the equality.
As a trivial example, let's say I wanted the numbers that aren't equal to 3.
const someNumbersThatAreNotThree = someNumbers.filter(n => n !== 3)
can be written as
const someNumbersThatAreNotThree = [
...someNumbers.filter(n => n < 3),
...someNumbers.filter(n => n > 3)
];
Applying this to Firestore, you can convert this (formerly) incorrect query:
const docsWithChallengeID = await colRef
.where('challenge_id', '!=', '')
.get()
.then(querySnapshot => querySnapshot.docs);
into these two queries and merge their results:
const docsWithChallengeID = await Promise.all([
colRef
.orderBy('challenge_id')
.endBefore('')
.get()
.then(querySnapshot => querySnapshot.docs),
colRef
.orderBy('challenge_id')
.startAfter('')
.get()
.then(querySnapshot => querySnapshot.docs),
]).then(results => results.flat());
Important Note: The requesting user must be able to read all the documents that would match the queries to not get a permissions error.
Missing/Undefined Fields
Simply put, in Firestore, if a field doesn't appear in a document, that document won't appear in that field's index. This is in contrast to the Realtime Database where omitted fields had a value of null.
Because of the nature of NoSQL databases where the schema you are working with might change leaving your older documents with missing fields, you might need a solution to "patch your database". To do this, you would iterate over your collection and add the new field to the documents where it is missing.
To avoid permissions errors, it is best to make these adjustments using the Admin SDK with a service account, but you can do this using a regular SDK using a user with the appropriate read/write access to your database.
This function is recursive, and is intended to be executed once.
async function addDefaultValueForField(queryRef, fieldName, defaultFieldValue, pageSize = 100) {
let checkedCount = 0, pageCount = 1;
const initFieldPromises = [], newData = { [fieldName]: defaultFieldValue };
// get first page of results
console.log(`Fetching page ${pageCount}...`);
let querySnapshot = await queryRef
.limit(pageSize)
.get();
// while page has data, parse documents
while (!querySnapshot.empty) {
// for fetching the next page
let lastSnapshot = undefined;
// for each document in this page, add the field as needed
querySnapshot.forEach(doc => {
if (doc.get(fieldName) === undefined) {
const addFieldPromise = doc.ref.update(newData)
.then(
() => ({ success: true, ref: doc.ref }),
(error) => ({ success: false, ref: doc.ref, error }) // trap errors for later analysis
);
initFieldPromises.push(addFieldPromise);
}
lastSnapshot = doc;
});
checkedCount += querySnapshot.size;
pageCount++;
// fetch next page of results
console.log(`Fetching page ${pageCount}... (${checkedCount} documents checked so far, ${initFieldPromises.length} need initialization)`);
querySnapshot = await queryRef
.limit(pageSize)
.startAfter(lastSnapshot)
.get();
}
console.log(`Finished searching documents. Waiting for writes to complete...`);
// wait for all writes to resolve
const initFieldResults = await Promise.all(initFieldPromises);
console.log(`Finished`);
// count & sort results
let initializedCount = 0, errored = [];
initFieldResults.forEach((res) => {
if (res.success) {
initializedCount++;
} else {
errored.push(res);
}
});
const results = {
attemptedCount: initFieldResults.length,
checkedCount,
errored,
erroredCount: errored.length,
initializedCount
};
console.log([
`From ${results.checkedCount} documents, ${results.attemptedCount} needed the "${fieldName}" field added.`,
results.attemptedCount == 0
? ""
: ` ${results.initializedCount} were successfully updated and ${results.erroredCount} failed.`
].join(""));
const errorCountByCode = errored.reduce((counters, result) => {
const code = result.error.code || "unknown";
counters[code] = (counters[code] || 0) + 1;
return counters;
}, {});
console.log("Errors by reported code:", errorCountByCode);
return results;
}
You would then apply changes using:
const goalsQuery = firebase.firestore()
.collection("user_goals");
addDefaultValueForField(goalsQuery, "challenge_id", "")
.catch((err) => console.error("failed to patch collection with new default value", err));
The above function could also be tweaked to allow the default value to be calculated based on the document's other fields:
let getUpdateData;
if (typeof defaultFieldValue === "function") {
getUpdateData = (doc) => ({ [fieldName]: defaultFieldValue(doc) });
} else {
const updateData = { [fieldName]: defaultFieldValue };
getUpdateData = () => updateData;
}
/* ... later ... */
const addFieldPromise = doc.ref.update(getUpdateData(doc))
The solution I use is:
Use: .where('field', '>', ''),
Where "field" is the field we are looking for!
As you correctly state, it is not possible to filter based on !=. If possible, I would add an extra field to define the goal type. It is possible to use != in security rules, along with various string comparison methods, so you can enforce the correct goal type, based on your challenge_id format.
Specify the goal type
Create a type field and filter based on this field.
type: master or type: custom and search .where('type', '==', 'master') or search for custom.
Flag custom goals
Create a customGoal field which can be true or false.
customGoal: true and search .where('customGoal', '==', true) or false (as required).
Update
It is now possible to perform a != query in Cloud Firestore
Firestore does pick up on boolean, which is a thing! and can be orderBy'd.
So often, like now, for this, I add this into the array-pushing from onSnapshot or get, use .get().then( for dev...
if (this.props.auth !== undefined) {
if (community && community.place_name) {
const sc =
community.place_name && community.place_name.split(",")[1];
const splitComma = sc ? sc : false
if (community.splitComma !== splitComma) {
firebase
.firestore()
.collection("communities")
.doc(community.id)
.update({ splitComma });
}
const sc2 =
community.place_name && community.place_name.split(",")[2];
const splitComma2 =sc2 ? sc2 : false
console.log(splitComma2);
if (community.splitComma2 !== splitComma2) {
firebase
.firestore()
.collection("communities")
.doc(community.id)
.update({
splitComma2
});
}
}
This way, I can query with orderBy instead of where
browseCommunities = (paginate, cities) => {
const collection = firebase.firestore().collection("communities");
const query =
cities === 1 //countries
? collection.where("splitComma2", "==", false) //without a second comma
: cities //cities
? collection
.where("splitComma2", ">", "")
.orderBy("splitComma2", "desc") //has at least two
: collection.orderBy("members", "desc");
var shot = null;
if (!paginate) {
shot = query.limit(10);
} else if (paginate === "undo") {
shot = query.startAfter(this.state.undoCommunity).limit(10);
} else if (paginate === "last") {
shot = query.endBefore(this.state.lastCommunity).limitToLast(10);
}
shot &&
shot.onSnapshot(
(querySnapshot) => {
let p = 0;
let browsedCommunities = [];
if (querySnapshot.empty) {
this.setState({
[nuller]: null
});
}
querySnapshot.docs.forEach((doc) => {
p++;
if (doc.exists) {
var community = doc.data();
community.id = doc.id;
It is not an ideal solution, but here is my workaround when a field does not exist:
let user_goals = await db.collection('user_goals').get()
user_goals.forEach(goal => {
let data = goal.data()
if(!Object.keys(data).includes(challenge_id)){
//Perform your task here
}
})
Note that it would impact your read counts a lot so only use this if you have small collection or can afford the reads.
New to MongoDB. I'm trying to add a new document to an existing collection only if a document with the same name does not already exist within that collection. I'm using an if/else statement first to check whether there is a document with the same name as the new entry, and if not, an else statement that will create the new entry. Whatever I try, the new document is not getting added, and instead it returns an empty array. I'd be grateful for any help.
I've tried switching the if/else statements; checking for null and undefined values upon return of if statement
app.post('/cocktails/new', isLoggedIn, (req, res) => {
// add to DB then show item
let name = req.body.name;
let style = req.body.style;
let spirit = req.body.spirit;
let image = req.body.image;
let description = req.body.description;
let newCocktail = {name: name, style: style, base: spirit, image:
image, description: description}
Cocktail.find({name}, function (err, existCocktail) {
if(existCocktail){
console.log(existCocktail)
}
else {Cocktail.create(newCocktail, (err, cocktail) => {
console.log(cocktail)
if (err) {console.log(err)}
else {
res.redirect('/cocktails/' + cocktail._id)}
})
}
})
})
In the event document is not found with the if function, else statements will execute, leading to new document being created with the newCocktail object.
You should use findOne instead of find.
find returns an empty array when no docs found.
The following expression returns true, so your existCocktail condition becomes true, causing your new data not added.
[] ? true : false
Also I refactor your code a bit, you can use destructuring your req.body.
app.post("/cocktails/new", isLoggedIn, (req, res) => {
// add to DB then show item
const { name, style, spirit, image, description } = red.body;
let newCocktail = {
name,
style,
base: spirit,
image,
description
};
Cocktail.findOne({ name }, function(err, existCocktail) {
if (existCocktail) {
console.log(existCocktail);
res.status(400).json({ error: "Name already exists" });
} else {
Cocktail.create(newCocktail, (err, cocktail) => {
console.log(cocktail);
if (err) {
console.log(err);
res.status(500).json({ error: "Something went bad" });
} else {
res.redirect("/cocktails/" + cocktail._id);
}
});
}
});
});
If a user has an array called "tags":
var User = new Schema({
email: {
type: String,
unique: true,
required: true
},
tags: [{
type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId,
ref:'Tag',
required: true
}],
created: {
type: Date,
default: Date.now
}
});
and I do a populate('tags') on a query:
User.findById(req.params.id)
.populate("tags")
.exec(function(err, user) { ... });
If one of the tags in the list has actually been deleted, is there a way to remove this dead reference in "tags"?
Currently, the returned user object IS returning the desired result -- ie. only tags that actually exist are in the tags array... however, if I look at the underlying document in mongodb, it still contains the dead tag id in the array.
Ideally, I would like to clean these references up lazily. Does anyone know of a good strategy to do this?
I've tried to find some built-in way to do that but seems that mongoose doesn't provide such functionality.
So I did something like this
User.findById(userId)
.populate('tags')
.exec((err, user) => {
user.tags = user.tags.filter(tag => tag != null);
res.send(user); // Return result as soon as you can
user.save(); // Save user without dead refs to database
})
This way every time you fetch user you also delete dead refs from the document. Also, you can create isUpdated boolean variable to not call user.save if there was no deleted refs.
const lengthBeforeFilter = user.tags.length;
let isUpdated = user.tags.length;
user.tags = user.tags.filter(tag => tag != null);
isUpdated = lengthBeforeFilter > user.tags.length;
res.send(user);
if (isUpdated) {
user.save();
}
Assuming you delete these tags via mongoose, you can use the post middleware.
This will be executed after you've deleted a tag.
tagSchema.post('remove', function(doc) {
//find all users with referenced tag
//remove doc._id from array
});
its sample retainNullValues: true
Example:
User.findById(req.params.id)
.populate({
path: "tag",
options: {
retainNullValues: true
}
})
My app has several users, each user has documents. Each documents needs to have a sequence number, that may look something like this: 2013-1, 2013-2 (year and sequence number), or perhaps just a simple number: 1, 2, 3...
Currently, I am assigning the sequence number from user's settings when the Mongoose docuemnt is created. Based on that sequence number and the number format from user's settings, I am generating the final document number.
What I realized is that when 2 documents are created at the same time, they will get exactly the same number, because I am incrementing the sequence number in settings just after I have saved a document. But I am assigning the sequence number when I am creating (not saving yet) the document so the sequence number will be exactly the same for both documents.
I obviously need a way to handle this sequence number auto-incrementing at the moment of saving...
How can I assure that this number is unique and automatically incremented/generated?
#emre and #WiredPraire pointed me to the right direction, but I wanted to provide a full Mongoose-compatible answer to my question. I ended up with the following solution:
var Settings = new Schema({
nextSeqNumber: { type: Number, default: 1 }
});
var Document = new Schema({
_userId: { type: Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: "User" },
number: { type: String }
});
// Create a compound unique index over _userId and document number
Document.index({ "_userId": 1, "number": 1 }, { unique: true });
// I make sure this is the last pre-save middleware (just in case)
Document.pre('save', function(next) {
var doc = this;
// You have to know the settings_id, for me, I store it in memory: app.current.settings.id
Settings.findByIdAndUpdate( settings_id, { $inc: { nextSeqNumber: 1 } }, function (err, settings) {
if (err) next(err);
doc.number = settings.nextSeqNumber - 1; // substract 1 because I need the 'current' sequence number, not the next
next();
});
});
Please note that with this method there is no way to require the number path in the schema, and there is no point as well, because it is automatically added.
You can achieve that through:
create sequence generator, which is just another document that keeps a counter of the last number.
Use a mongoose middleware to update the auto increment the desired field.
Here is a working and tested example with the todo app.
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/todoApp');
// Create a sequence
function sequenceGenerator(name){
var SequenceSchema, Sequence;
SequenceSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
nextSeqNumber: { type: Number, default: 1 }
});
Sequence = mongoose.model(name + 'Seq', SequenceSchema);
return {
next: function(callback){
Sequence.find(function(err, data){
if(err){ throw(err); }
if(data.length < 1){
// create if doesn't exist create and return first
Sequence.create({}, function(err, seq){
if(err) { throw(err); }
callback(seq.nextSeqNumber);
});
} else {
// update sequence and return next
Sequence.findByIdAndUpdate(data[0]._id, { $inc: { nextSeqNumber: 1 } }, function(err, seq){
if(err) { throw(err); }
callback(seq.nextSeqNumber);
});
}
});
}
};
}
// sequence instance
var sequence = sequenceGenerator('todo');
var TodoSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
name: String,
completed: Boolean,
priority: Number,
note: { type: String, default: '' },
updated_at: { type: Date, default: Date.now }
});
TodoSchema.pre('save', function(next){
var doc = this;
// get the next sequence
sequence.next(function(nextSeq){
doc.priority = nextSeq;
next();
});
});
var Todo = mongoose.model('Todo', TodoSchema);
You can test it out in the node console as follows
function cb(err, data){ console.log(err, data); }
Todo.create({name: 'hola'}, cb);
Todo.find(cb);
With every newly created object the you will see the priority increasing. Cheers!
This code is taken from MongoDB manual and it actually describes making the _id field auto increment. However, it can be applied to any field. What you want is to check whether the inserted value exists in database just after you inserted your document. If it is allready inserted, re increment the value then try to insert again. This way you can detect dublicate values and re-increment them.
while (1) {
var cursor = targetCollection.find( {}, { f: 1 } ).sort( { f: -1 } ).limit(1);
var seq = cursor.hasNext() ? cursor.next().f + 1 : 1;
doc.f = seq;
targetCollection.insert(doc);
var err = db.getLastErrorObj();
if( err && err.code ) {
if( err.code == 11000 /* dup key */ )
continue;
else
print( "unexpected error inserting data: " + tojson( err ) );
}
break;
}
In this example f is the field in your document that you want to auto increment. To make this work you need to make your field UNIQUE which can be done with indexes.
db.myCollection.ensureIndex( { "f": 1 }, { unique: true } )
You can use mongoose-auto-increment package as follows:
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var autoIncrement = require('mongoose-auto-increment');
/* connect to your database here */
/* define your DocumentSchema here */
autoIncrement.initialize(mongoose.connection);
DocumentSchema.plugin(autoIncrement.plugin, 'Document');
var Document = mongoose.model('Document', DocumentSchema);
You only need to initialize the autoIncrement once.
I have a number of records stored in a MongoDB I'm trying to output them to the browser window by way of a Node.JS http server. I think I'm a good portion of the way along but I'm missing a few little things that are keeping it from actually working.
The code below uses node-mongo-native to connect to the database.
If there is anyone around who can help me make those last few connections with working in node I'd really appreciate it. To be fair, I'm sure this is just the start.
var sys = require("sys");
var test = require("assert");
var http = require('http');
var Db = require('../lib/mongodb').Db,
Connection = require('../lib/mongodb').Connection,
Server = require('../lib/mongodb').Server,
//BSON = require('../lib/mongodb').BSONPure;
BSON = require('../lib/mongodb').BSONNative;
var host = process.env['MONGO_NODE_DRIVER_HOST'] != null ? process.env['MONGO_NODE_DRIVER_HOST'] : 'localhost';
var port = process.env['MONGO_NODE_DRIVER_PORT'] != null ? process.env['MONGO_NODE_DRIVER_PORT'] : Connection.DEFAULT_PORT;
sys.puts("Connecting to " + host + ":" + port);
function PutItem(err, item){
var result = "";
if(item != null) {
for (key in item) {
result += key + '=' + item[key];
}
}
// sys.puts(sys.inspect(item)) // debug output
return result;
}
function ReadTest(){
var db = new Db('mydb', new Server(host, port, {}), {native_parser:true});
var result = "";
db.open(function (err, db) {
db.collection('test', function(err, collection) {
collection.find(function (err, cursor){
cursor.each( function (err, item) {
result += PutItem(err, item);
});
});
});
});
return result;
}
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
res.end("foo"+ReadTest());
}).listen(8124);
console.log('Server running on 8124');
Sources:
- mongo connectivity code:
https://github.com/christkv/node-mongodb-native/blob/master/examples/simple.js
- node. http code: nodejs.org
EDIT CORRECTED CODE
Thanks to Mic below who got me rolling in the right direction. For anyone interested, the corrected solution is here:
function ReadTest(res){
var db = new Db('mydb', new Server(host, port, {}), {native_parser:true});
var result = "";
res.write("in readtest\n");
db.open(function (err, db) {
res.write("now open\n");
db.collection('test', function(err, collection) {
res.write("in collection\n");
collection.find(function (err, cursor){
res.write("found\n");
cursor.each( function (err, item) {
res.write("now open\n");
var x = PutItem(err, item);
sys.puts(x);
res.write(x);
if (item == null) {
res.end('foo');
}
});
});
});
});
}
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
res.write("start\n");
ReadTest(res);
}).listen(8124);
console.log('Server running on 8124');
My guess is that you are returning result, writing the response, and closing the connection before anything is fetched from the db.
One solution would be to pass the response object to where you actually need it, something like:
function readTest(res) {
db.open(function (err, db) {
db.collection('test', function(err, collection) {
collection.find(function (err, cursor) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-type' : 'text/plain'});
cursor.each( function (err, item) { res.write(item); });
res.end();
...
Of course, you should also handle errors and try to avoid nesting too many levels, but that's a different discussion.
Instead of writing all the low-level Mongodb access code, you might want to try a simple library like mongous so that you can focus on your data, not on MongoDB quirks.
You might want to try mongoskin too.
Reading documents
To apply specific value filters, we can pass specific values to the find() command. Here is a SQL query:
SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE name = 'ABC'
which is equivalent to the following in MongoDB (notice Collection1 for Table1):
db.Collection1.find({name: 'ABC'})
We can chain count() to get the number of results, pretty() to get a readable result. The results can be further narrowed by adding additional parameters:
db.Collection1.find({name: 'ABC', rollNo: 5})
It's important to notice that these filters are ANDed together, by default. To apply an OR filter, we need to use $or. These filters will be specified depending upon the structure of the document. Ex: for object attribute name for an object school, we need to specify filter like "school.name" = 'AUHS'
We're using here the DOT notation, by trying to access a nested field name of a field school. Also notice that the filters are quoted, without which we'll get syntax errors.
Equality matches on arrays can be performed:
on the entire arrays
based on any element
based on a specific element
more complex matches using operators
In the below query:
db.Collection1.find({name: ['ABC','XYZ']})
MongoDB is going to identify documents by an exact match to an array of one or more values. Now for these types of queries, the order of elements matters, meaning that we will only match documents that have ABC followed by XYZ and those are the only 2 elements of the array name
{name:["ABC","GHI","XYZ"]},
{name:["DEF","ABC","XYZ"]}
In the above document, let's say that we need to get all the documnts where ABC is the first element. So, we'll use the below filter:
db.Schools.find({'name.0': 'ABC' })