PFQuery categorizing results into multilevel arrays - swift

I am trying to do a multiple PFQuery and storing the data properly.
My plan is to query for group members in my Group
I am looking for the key member. It gives me an array of objectIds. Then I want to query in my _User class for their picture with key firstImage. Displaying the data is not the problem, just getting it the right way.
The data needs to be stored considering it's groups. This is what i tried so far:
let fetchGroupsQuery = PFQuery(className: "Group")
fetchGroupsQuery.whereKey("member", equalTo: objectID!)
fetchGroupsQuery.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock { (objects, error) -> Void in
if error != nil
{
}
else {
if let objects = objects {
self.memberPhotos.removeAll()
for object in objects {
if let member = object["member"] as? [String]
{
// returns array of objectIds
for user in member
{
// returns single ids
self.groupIds.append(user)
let photoQuery = PFUser.query()
photoQuery?.whereKey("objectId", equalTo: user)
photoQuery?.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock({ (results, error) -> Void in
if error != nil {
// ....
}
else {
self.memberPhotos.removeAll()
if let results = results
{
for result in results
{
if result["firstImage"] != nil
{
self.memberPhotos.append(result["firstImage"])
}
}
}
}})
}
}
My idea was to store the data within an array of arrays.
So that I can later go into array[indexPath.row] to get the array I need to loop through in order to get the right group pictures.
Any ideas how to solve this?

I would use two separate queries function:
1) to get their ID's
2) for their pictures.
For the first query: what you need to change?
Your objectID array should be of type of NSMutableArray because in order to fetch their info you should use the constraint whereKey containedIn not whereKey equalTo
and for that constraint you should downcast your NSMutableArray to type AnyObject.
Also change the Type of your groupIds to NSMutableArray, then append your array.
For the Second query:
Since your groupIds Type is already NSMutableArray just cast it to AnyObject,then use the whereKey containedIn
Note: It would be better to download all images before appending your
array. So you have the option of using struct or class(easier to
group data to its owner) then create an array of that data
structure.Where it because easier to populate your UI.

Related

Swift: Wait for firestore load before next load

I have a view controller that lists data from a firestore database. Inside a firestore collection, I have a bunch of documents with the information shown in the list, and one document called order which contains one field which is an array of strings in the order I want them displayed. My code grabs this:
self.db.collection("officers").document(school).collection(grade).document("order").getDocument {(document, error) in
if let document = document, document.exists {
self.officerNames = (document.data()!["order"] as! Array<String>)
and then is supposed to use the strings in the array order (officerNames) to query the documents in that same collection (all the documents have a different role so it's only getting one document in the snapshot) and display them in the same order as the one set in order (officerNames).
for item in 1...self.officerNames.count {
self.db.collection("officers").document(school).collection(grade).whereField("role", isEqualTo: self.officerNames[item-1]).getDocuments() { (querySnapshot, err) in
if let err = err {
print("Error getting documents: \(err)")
} else {
for document in querySnapshot!.documents {
let officerMessage = document.data()["agenda"] as! String
let officerInfo = document.data()["short"] as! String
(a bunch of code here using that ^ ^ and due to the color I need item to be an integer)
}
}
}
}
I know that if I try printing item before the self.collection("officers")..... the numbers count by one but if I do that in the for document in querySnapshot..... they're all out of order meaning some documents are loaded faster than others. I have read about Async functions in Swift (although I do use those in JavaScript) but am really confused how to use them and hopefully, there is a simpler way to do this. Any way I can wait to make sure the previous document has been loaded and analyzed before iterating through the loop again?
Here's a screenshot of the database:
Honestly, you may want to examine your data structure and see if you can create one that doesn't require multiple queries like this. I can't quite tell what your data structure is, but if you update your question to include it, I can give some suggestions for how to refactor so you don't have to do 2 different get requests.
That being said, since Swift doesn't have promises like JS, it can be tough to keep data in order. For most cases, closures work well, as I wrote about in this blog. But they still won't preserve order in an array of async calls. Assuming you're using some array to store the officer's data, you can declare the size of the array up front by giving each one a default value. This would look something like this:
var officerArray = [Officer](repeating:Officer(), count: self.officerNames.count)
Of course, it'll be different depending on what kind of objects you're populating it with. I'm using some generic Officer object in this case.
Then, rather than appending the newly created Officer object (or whatever you're calling it) to the end of the array, add its value to its particular location in the array.
for item in 1...self.officerNames.count {
self.db.collection("officers").document(school).collection(grade).whereField("role", isEqualTo: self.officerNames[item-1]).getDocuments() { (querySnapshot, err) in
if let err = err {
print("Error getting documents: \(err)")
} else {
for document in querySnapshot!.documents {
let officerMessage = document.data()["agenda"] as! String
let officerInfo = document.data()["short"] as! String
// etc
officerArray[self.officerNames.count-1] = Officer(officerMessage: officerMessage, officerInfo: officerInfo) // or however you're instantiating your objects
}
}
}
}
This preserves the order.

Relational query on PFObject

I have a PFObject, Account that contains an array of Users which are subclasses of PFUserss. The User then has a NSDictonary property, allowableApps, that's a NSDictionary of arrays, where they arrays contain PFObjects.
So as a structure:
Account
var users: [User]
which points to....
User
// Each key is an array of AllowApp
var allowableApps: NSMutableDictionary
which points to...
AllowableApp
var appName: String
var appURL: String
var isAllowed: Bool
I'm trying to fetch all of these relations down to AllowableApp in a single query. I've tried using the .includeKey like this:
accountQuery?.includeKey("users")
accountQuery?.includeKey("allowableApps")
which didn't work. I've also tried:
accountQuery?.includeKey("users.allowableApps.appName")
accountQuery?.includeKey("users.allowableApps.appURL")
accountQuery?.includeKey("users.allowableApps.isAllowed")
I try to populate a UITableView with all the AllowableApp objects but I get this error:
Key "appName" has no data. Call fetchIfNeeded before getting its value.
Which I understand, I need to fetch all of them before trying to access the appName property. (which I'm trying to set cellForRowAtIndexPath).
Here is my full query:
let currentUser = User.currentUser()
let accountQuery = Account.query()
accountQuery?.whereKey("primaryUser", equalTo: currentUser!)
accountQuery?.includeKey("users.allowableApps")
accountQuery?.getFirstObjectInBackgroundWithBlock({ (account, error) in
if (error != nil) {
completion(users: nil, error: error)
}
else {
let users = (account as? Account)!.users
completion(users: users, error: nil)
}
})
My thought right now is to just loop through all of the AllowableApp objects in viewDidAppear calling fetchInBackgroundWithBlock. Then once they are all loaded I reload the table data.
This seems realllly messy and a common problem. Is there a more elegant solution that I'm just not seeing?
From what i understand you have the following structure:
Account
Users (Array of User)
AllowsableApps (Array of AllowApps)
First of all change the NSMutableDictionary to Array. NSMutableDictionary is a key-value pairs and in parse you should create one field. So you can use Array of AllowApps and it will do the same effect.
In order to fetch all accounts and users in each of the account and allowable apps per user you need to build the following query:
// You can do it with sub classing if you want
let query = PFQuery(className: "Account")
query.includeKey("users.allowableApps")
query.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock {
(objects: [PFObject]?, error: NSError?) -> Void in
}
Now for your users array. If your users array is users that needs to login the app it's better to inherit from PFUser and not from PFObject because PFUser contains all the logic for handling users in your app.

Difference between generate and append when querying and adding data to array?

var objectarray = [PFObject]()
func populateTable() {
query.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock { (objects, error) in
self.objectarray.removeAll(keepCapacity: true)
self.searchTableView.reloadData()
if error == nil {
Above is the query I am doing and the below 2 codes are what I can use to use the query to populate a array.
if let objects = objects as [PFObject]! {
self.objectarray = Array(objects.generate())
}
Is there any difference with running this code above to populate my array or running the code below?
for object in objects! {
self.objectarray.append(object)
}
Doing either works to load onto my tableView. Also another question regarding Parse. After doing the above, the user doesn't download PFFiles from the background until I run
getDataInBackgroundWithBlock
right? I want to know if it'd be beneficial to save smaller versions of images onto the server.

swift parse query not returning objects in ascending order

My query aims to fetch the objects created by a certain number of users. The following are my codes:
var dates = [NSDate]()
var messages = [String]()
let getUsersQuery = PFQuery(className: "followings")
getUsersQuery.whereKey("follower", equalTo: PFUser.currentUser()!.objectId!)
getFollowedUsersQuery.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock { (objects, error) -> Void in
if let objects = objects {
for object in objects {
let followedUser = object["followedUser"] as! String
let getPostsQuery = PFQuery(className: "posts")
getPostsQuery.whereKey("userId", equalTo: followedUser)
getPostsQuery.orderByDescending("updatedAt")
getPostsQuery.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock({ (objects, error) -> Void in
if let objects = objects {
for post in objects {
self.dates.append(post.createdAt as NSDate!)
self.messages.append(post["message"] as! String)
}
print(self.dates)
self.myTableView.reloadData()
})
}
}
}
})
Here's what come up when I print the dates in the log:
However, the content in my tableview is not in an ascending order. In fact the post created most recently is at the bottom of the tableview. One thing I noticed is that the posts of a particular user seems to be shown together. So all of one user's post would appear at the top of the tableview no matter another user has created the newest post. Any idea what is going wrong? thanks!
What you need is a nested query. The array you are trying to get is an of posts. So your query should be on the post table. (Also, your table should be called post not posts. Table names should always be singular. Each post is called a post not a posts.
let postsQuery = PFQuery(className: "post")
postsQuery.orderByDescending("updatedAt")
let usersQuery = PFQuery(className: "following")
usersQuery.whereKey("follower", equalTo:PFUser.currentUser()!.objectId!)
// this might need to change depending on what the followed user is called in the `followings` table.
postsQuery.whereKey("userId", matchesKey:"followed", inQuery:usersQuery)
getPostsQuery.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock({ (objects, error) -> Void in
if let objects = objects {
for post in objects {
self.dates.append(post.createdAt as NSDate!)
self.messages.append(post["message"] as! String)
}
print(self.dates)
self.myTableView.reloadData()
})
Also, you are saving dates and messages in separate arrays. Create a struct or something that has a date and string and have a single array of Post objects.

Parse includeKey works for an Array but not for a Pointer Object

I am currently working on an iOS app that connects to Parse and I am having difficulty in retrieving objects using the includeKey() function.
Lets say that I am adding a food item to my Food table:
var newFoodObject = PFObject(className: "Food")
//Here I am pointing to an existing object in my SubCategory table
newFoodObject["subCategory"] = PFObject(withoutDataWithClassName: "SubCategory", objectId: "oisii1pZSP")
newFoodObject.saveInBackgroundWithBlock { (success: Bool!, error:NSError!) -> Void in
println(success)
println(error)
}
Then lets say I want to retrieve that object:
var query = PFQuery(className: "Food")
query.includeKey("subCategory")
query.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock { (objects:[AnyObject]!, error:NSError!) -> Void in
println(objects)
println(error)
}
For some reason when I do this the SubCategory object is not included in the query coming back unless I save the SubCategory in an array in my Food table.
Any thoughts why the includeKey() functions works with an array of pointers but not with a single pointer?