FireBase - angularfire setting object key as variable

Question

I am using firebase(angularfire) in my angularjs app to store and process my message system but can't seem to figure out how to replicate the example data from the firebase docs

 // room members are easily accessible (or restricted)
      // we also store these by room ID
      "members": {
        // we'll talk about indices like this below
        "one": {
          "mchen": true,
          "hmadi": true
        }
      }

Here the members.one contains the user name as a key and I am trying to do this for my data as well but can't seem to figure out a solution.

The members portion of my firebase data is like so:

members { one: { } }

I have two variables set in the $scope.

user_name = kep; //person chatting with name
sender_name = pek; //current user name

So I want to use the set function to insert data into members.one or in this case members.user_name + ':' + sender_name but where I am having trouble is how to actually insert the data without creating a parent object.

ref.child('members').child(user_name + ':' + sender_name).set({
    user_name: true, sender_name: true
 });

The problem arises when I try to pass user_name and sender_name into the set() function below is the result it gets.

members { "kep:pek": { user_name: true, sender_name: true }}

where as I want it to be:

members { "kep:pek": { kep: true, pek: true }}

If I put user_name and sender_name into an object and then run the set() function with the object passed it will create the following structure which is not what I am looking for:

members { "kep:pek": { newObject: { kep: true, pek: true }}}

David East · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-02 13:15:08Z

2

Firebase team member here.

The Firebase Database is a just a JSON document.

So let's say you want to structure your data this way:

{
  "members" : {
    "kep:pek" : {
      "kep" : true,
      "pek" : true
    }
  }
}

A custom key is created by using the .child() method, or by creating a key in the JavaScript Object.

JSBin Demo

var rootRef = new Firebase('<my-firebase-app>');
var membersRef = rootRef.child('members');
var user_name = 'kep';
var sender_name = 'pek';
// child object to store custom keys
var objectToSave = {};
// set keys in [] syntax
objectToSave[user_name] = true;
objectToSave[sender_name] = true;
// use .child() with a formatted string to save the object
membersRef.child(user_name + ':' + sender_name).set(objectToSave);

edited Dec 2, 2015 at 13:15

answered Dec 2, 2015 at 6:05

David East

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8 Comments

Spade Over a year ago

Hi David, thanks for taking the time to help. I was trying to do the above but it is inserting as an object and not just key value pairs. It insert like so members.one.obj { user_name: true } and not members.one { user_name: true } The users are being generated on click (chat rooms) and thats why the user_name and sender_name need to be passed

David East Over a year ago

Anywhere where you need a key you can use .child(), and then set the dat a needed at that path. At the end of the day everything is just one JSON object. I updated my answer to represent that.

Spade Over a year ago

When I insert using the above it creates the following structure: members: { one: { objectToSave: { "mchen": true } } } where as I want members: { one: { "mchen": true } } the only problem I keep running into is that when inserting like my second example how do I pass user_name to show up as mchen? - @David East

David East Over a year ago

I'm confused now. In your first comment you said didn't want members.one { user_name: true } and now you're saying that's what you want. Regardless of what you want though, it's all just a key/value store. Calling .child(keyName) with a key name will get you what you want.

Spade Over a year ago

Sorry for the confusion, I re-worded my question maybe it makes more sense now ?

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