Firebase android : make username unique

Question

Parse will shut down at the end of the year, so I decided to start using Firebase. I need to implement a register process with 3 fields : email, username, password (Email & username must be unique for my app).

Since, Firebase is not providing an easy way to manage username like Parse, I decided to use only the email/password registration and save some additional data like username. Here is my users data structure :

app : {
    users: {
       "some-user-uid": {
            email: "[email protected]"
            username: "myname"
       }
    }
}

But, what I want to do is to make the username unique and to check it before creating an account. These are my rules :

{
    "rules": {
        ".read": true,
        ".write": true,
        "users": {
            "$uid": {
                ".write": "auth !== null && auth.uid === $uid",
                ".read": "auth !== null && auth.provider === 'password'",
                "username": {".validate": "!root.child('users').child(newData.child('username').val()).exists()"}
            }
        }
   }
}

Thank you very much for your help

So you want the Firebase rules to be checked on the Android client? — Da-Jin
– Da-Jin, Commented Feb 6, 2016 at 17:27
Yes, I want to check first if username is taken if firebase tell me no then create an account otherwise just ask the user to pick another username — FloGz
– FloGz, Commented Feb 6, 2016 at 17:34
Aside from my answer about data structure and security rules, here are some questions where the topic has been covered before: stackoverflow.com/questions/29970681/…, stackoverflow.com/questions/25294478/…, stackoverflow.com/questions/15910165/…, stackoverflow.com/questions/20260476/… — Frank van Puffelen
– Frank van Puffelen, Commented Feb 6, 2016 at 18:24

Frank van Puffelen · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-06 18:22:34Z

66

Part of the answer is to store an index of usernames, that you check against in your security rules:

app : {
    users: {
       "some-user-uid": {
            email: "[email protected]"
            username: "myname"
       }
    },
    usernames: {
        "myname": "some-user-uid"
    }
}

So the usernames node maps a username to a uid. It essentially reads as "username 'myname' is owned by 'some-user-uid'".

With this data structure, your security rules can check if there is already an entry for a given username:

"users": {
  "$uid": {
    ".write": "auth !== null && auth.uid === $uid",
    ".read": "auth !== null && auth.provider === 'password'",
    "username": {
      ".validate": "
        !root.child('usernames').child(newData.val()).exists() ||
        root.child('usernames').child(newData.val()).val() == $uid"
    }
  }
}

This validates that the username isn't claimed by anyone yet OR it is claimed by the current user.

answered Feb 6, 2016 at 18:22

Frank van Puffelen

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9 Comments

Creos Over a year ago

great answer, duplicative with stackoverflow.com/questions/25294478/…

Chris Conway Over a year ago

Hi Frank, I think it would also be important to note that you should probably cast all checks to usernames to lowercase and store lowercase, that way you can't have identical usernames of varying case. The value stored in the users/some-user-uid/username field can be case sensitive, that can be the readable version, which should allow for a more user friendly username selection and case adherence.

Relm Over a year ago

@Frank van Puffelen can you confirm what Viv is saying on his answer about using a Transection instead of a normal set query? And also, any regex you've written before that can be used to validate allowed characters for user names?

jdstaerk Over a year ago

Thanks for your awesome answer! It really helped me. But there is still a problem I guess.. In your current implementation, the same user can claim as much usernames as he wants (if they are not taken). So he can basically create username1 till usernameN. How can we achieve, that the old username gets deleted before he claims his new one?

Frank van Puffelen Over a year ago

Have an inverted data structure that maps uid to username and then verify that uid -> username === username -> uid.

|

Viven · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-28 01:49:00Z

7

Save usernames as suggested by Frank but when you save usernames, use runTransaction function in Firebase to make sure that the username is not taken. This function is guaranteed by Firebase to be an atomic operation so you can be rest assured of no collision

firebaseRef.child("usernames").child(username).runTransaction(new Transaction.Handler() {
    @Override
    public Transaction.Result doTransaction(MutableData mutableData) {
        if (mutableData.getValue() == null) {
            mutableData.setValue(authData.getUid());
            return Transaction.success(mutableData);
        }

        return Transaction.abort();
    }

    @Override
    public void onComplete(FirebaseError firebaseError, boolean commited, DataSnapshot dataSnapshot) {
        if (commited) {
            // username saved
        } else {
            // username exists
        }
    }
});

edited Mar 28, 2016 at 1:49

answered Mar 24, 2016 at 13:15

Viven

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1 Comment

user2997154 Over a year ago

You set it in the username list but not in the uid. Should we add a line on complete to do that?

saurav singh · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-03 15:25:55Z

0

make a new branch for username and when new user login get list of all username and check wether it is present in db or not if it is present show them toast otherwise put its username in the username branch ..

answered Nov 3, 2021 at 15:25

saurav singh

615 bronze badges

Comments

SJSU Software Engineer · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-21 10:33:28Z

I dont know much about firebase security yet, but I may have solved the problem using Java. I have posted it below.

my data structure is

myapp
{
  users: {
          <unique generated-id>
          { username: "example.username" }
}
}


public boolean isUsernameExists(final String enteredUsername) {
        final Boolean[] isExist = {false};
        FBref.child("users").addValueEventListener(new ValueEventListener() {
            @Override
            public void onDataChange(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot) {
                for (DataSnapshot userSnapshot : dataSnapshot.getChildren()) {
                    String existingUsername = (String) userSnapshot.child("userName").getValue();
                    if (existingUsername.equals(enteredUsername)) {
                        isExist[0] = true;
                    }
                }
            }
            @Override
            public void onCancelled(FirebaseError firebaseError) {
                //some error thrown here
            }
        });
        return isExist[0];
    }

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