Is there a way to search for substrings in Firestore? - android

If there is a String named 'California' at firestore database and i want to search from android app as 'Cali' then the firebase should return me California.
How can i do that query?
There has some function at firestore like,
db.collection("cities").whereEqualTo("name", "Cali")
db.collection("cities").whereLessThan("name", "Cali")
db.collection("cities").whereGreaterThanOrEqualTo("name", "Cali")
db.collection("cities").whereGreaterThan("name", "Cali")
db.collection("cities").whereGreaterThanOrEqualTo("name", "Cali")
But i need a function like as,
db.collection("cities").whereContain("name", "Cali")
which should return full string that contains 'Cali' substring.

Unfortunately, there is no query in Firestore that looks like this:
db.collection("cities").whereContains("name", "Cali")
But for small datasets, there is a workaround that can help you solve this, which is by querying the database to get all city names and use contains() method like this:
String str1 = document.getString("yourProperty");
String str2 = "Cali";
boolean b = str1.toLowerCase().contains(str2.toLowerCase());
If you'll try to print the value of b, you'll see that is true. But the above examples works well enough only for small datasets, it doesn't work for large datasets and this is because downloading an entire collection to search for fields client-side isn't practical. In this case, as the official documentation recommends:
To enable full text search of your Cloud Firestore data, use a third-party search service like Algolia.
For a concrete example, please also see my answer from this post.

Related

Migration Firestore replace field

Let's say that I have a document like this:
Document {
tags: list<Int> {0,1,2}
}
I want to change it to this:
Document {
tags: list<String> {SEASON, TRAINING, TOURNAMENT}
}
I have active users which uses the list of ints, How do I create a migration in Firestore for this problem?
One solution I have in mind is to make 2 migrations:
For creating a new tags called tagsStrings.
For deleting all users who still have tags.
But can I make it in 1?
I was unable to find documentation for this, on https://cloud.google.com/firestore/docs/manage-data/move-data
Thanks in advance
Firestore does not have a "migration" like SQL databases. The only way to modify data in existing documents, in bulk, is to:
Query for the documents to change
Iterate the results
Update each document with new values
Each one of these tasks should be straightforward.
You might also consider lazily updating each document as each are individually read during the normal course of your app's usage. So, if your app reads a document in the old format, immediately update it to the new format.
It's often helpful to have a dedicated field in each document to indicate which version of data that's contained within. So, initially set v=1 in each document, assign v=2 to mean that the document has strings instead of numbers for tags, then use that number to determine which documents have yet to be migrated.

Combining Firebase Queries with GeoQuery to search Posts by name in nearby area

I'm making an android app where user can find a book in his/her vicinity and buy it if interested. I am using firebase and geoqueries/geofire.
I want to make a SearchActivity where user can search a book by it's title in his/her vicinity.
my Firebase Database Structure looks like :
books
PushKey
g:
l:
0:
1:
name:"some book name"
If i try to query this with some book name, it works fine using :
myRef.orderByChild("name").equalTo("some book name").addChildEventListener()....//The rest of the code here...
If i try to query nearby books,then also it works fine using :
geoQuery = geoFire.queryAtLocation(myLocation, 10);
I'm stuck at combining these two.
How can i search for a specific book name only in the vicinity?
For example : I want to search a book whose name is "ABCD" and is in a radius of 10km.
OR
Search a book by name and tell which one is nearest(In case several books are uploaded with same name at different locations).
Is it possible to do so? If not, what workaround(maybe other than firebase, but has to cheap and affordable) can i opt for where i can achieve this desired result?
The Firebase Database can only query by a single property. The fact that GeoFire does something that is seemingly at odds with that (querying by longitude and latitude) is because it combines these values into a single property in a magical format called a geohash (the g property in your JSON).
Combining values into a single property is the only way to get Firebase to filter on multiple values. For example, you could prefix the g property with your book title to get some book name_geohashvalue and could then filter on that.
The two main problems with that:
This only works if you know the entire book title, you can do a prefix match on the title, as you'll already need to use the prefix match for the geohash.
This is not built in to GeoFire, so you will have to fork that library and build it yourself.
If you do try to do this yourself, and get stuck, we can try to help. But fair warning: this won't be trivial, and you'll need to understand how geohashes, geofire, and Firebase's query model work quite well. For an intro, I recommend watching the video of my talk on performing geoqueries on Firebase and Firestore.
If you want something a bit less involved, you have two main options:
Retrieve all nodes within range, and then filter for the book title client-side.
Store a separate GeoFire tree for each book title, so that you can initialize your GeoFire object based on the book title, and only get keys within range for that specific book title.
Between these two, I'd recommend starting with #1.

How to search in Firestore using multiple fields of documents for android?

I'm using a Firebase Firestore for android to store data. I tried to search data from documents.
My Firestore structure is:
Collection (Products) - Document (Auto Generated ID) - Field (NumberOfPeople,OfferStartDate,OfferEndDate,OfferPrice,Location)
I wrote query for search data on those fields.
CollectionReference collectionOfProducts = db.collection("Products");
collectionOfProducts
.whereEqualTo("Location", location)
.whereGreaterThanOrEqualTo("OfferPrice", offerPrice)
.whereLessThanOrEqualTo("OfferPrice", offerPrice)
.whereGreaterThanOrEqualTo("OfferStartDate", date)
.whereLessThanOrEqualTo("OfferEndDate", date)
.get()
I want search result like this: An offer which is between start date and end date, where offer price is greater than equal or less than equal on give price range. This query is not working in android studio.
How to do this in firestore firebase?
According to the official documentation regarding Cloud Firestore queries, please note that there some query limitations:
In a compound query, range (<, <=, >, >=) and not equals (!=, not-in) comparisons must all filter on the same field.
So a Query object that contains a call to both methods:
.whereGreaterThanOrEqualTo("OfferStartDate", date)
.whereLessThanOrEqualTo("OfferEndDate", date)
Is actually not possible, as "OfferStartDate" and "OfferEndDate" are different properties.
The best solution I can think of is to use only one of these method calls and do the other filtering on the client.
Another possible solution might be to use denormalization and duplicate the data
in certain intervals. In this way, you'll always know the time periods and you'll be able to create the corresponding queries.
To the best of my knowledge, Firestore only lets you use where<Greater/Less>ThanOrEqualTo() and where<Greater/Less>Than() a single field and all other filter operations on other fields can only be whereEqualTo().
Some workarounds for your specific case include -
1) Modifying your query to
collectionOfProducts
.whereGreaterThanOrEqualTo("OfferStartDate", date)
.whereEqualTo("Location", location)
.get()
And then performing the subsequent filtering on the result in your app code.
Alternately, you can perform your filter on "OfferPrice" and "Location" in your query and the remaining filters can be applied to the query result.
2) You can use firebase functions or other server code to write logic that performs customized filtering and fetch the result that way.
i was having same issue with this, but i found a work around that takes sometime to write.
lets say you want to search for a particular keyword(in this case the value of a field inside a document), and you want firebase to search multiple field instead of just looking for 1 particular field.
this is what you want to do.
const searchTerm = document.createElement('input')
db.collection('collection').where('field1', '==', `${searchTerm.value}`)
.get()
.then((snapshot) => {
if(snapshot.size === '0'){
db.collection('collection').where('field2', '==', `${searchTerm.value}`)
.get()
.then((snapshot) => {
if(snapshot.size === 0) {
db.collection......and repeat
}
})
}
})
in summary, the above code is basically telling js to search for the term again with a different field if the result of the previous query is 0. I know this solution might not be able to work if we have a large quantity of fields. But for folks out there that are working with small number fields, this solution might be able to help.
I really do hope firestore one day would allow such feature, but here is the code it worked fine for me.
the problem I have now is to allow search input to be able to search without have me to complete the word. I do currently have an idea how this would be, but just need some time to put together.

Mlab Contains Query

Is it possible to use a like/contains query in mLab?
I have json data like so on the server https://mlab.com/:
"County": "Kildare, Laois, Carlow"
I can query the dataset to return all where trails = County Kildare:
#GET("databases/walks/collections/walks")
Call<List<Trail>> byCounty (#Query("q") String county,#Query("apiKey") String apiKey);
The parameter "q" contains: q={"County": "Kildare"}
But that only select data that match the following :
"County": "Kildare"
Is there an Mlab query that has the same function as Contains in MongoDB or Like in SQL. So i can search the county field if it contains "Kildare".
Or even how to do it in A HTTP request, i might be able to use it within the q={ }.
Ive tried using q={"County":"/.*Kildare.*/"}
Thank You.
The q parameter in the mLab Data API is just a MongoDB query document. You can use any MongoDB operator like you would normally in a MongoDB query document.
MongoDB doesn't have a $contains operator. But if you're searching for text in a string, you can use the $regex or $text operator. See the documentation for $regex and the documentation for $text to learn more.
To use $regex, try this as the q parameter:
q={"County": {"$regex": "Kildare"}}
To use $text, first build a text index on the County field. You can do this on the mLab management portal (instructions in the documentation) or run this command on the mongo shell:
db.walks.createIndex({ County: "text" })
You can then try this as the q parameter:
q={"$text": {"$search": "Kildare"}}
Important Note: $regex and $text can be extremely inefficient operations. It may be much more efficient and easier for you to restructure your data model. Rather than having a list of counties in a string, perhaps have them in an array like so:
"County": ["Kildare", "Laois", "Carlow"]
Then to search for all documents that contain Kildare in their County array, you can simply use this query:
q={"County": "Kildare"}
This may be a better option for you than using $regex or $text.

How to do a simple search in string in Firebase database?

I want to create a simple search in my app, but cannot find anything on interwebs about it, that's more recent than 2014. There must be a better way. There are startAt and endAt functions but they don't work as expected and are case sensitive. How do you guys solve this problem? How can this functionality still not exist in 2016?
In my case I was able to partly achieve a SQL LIKE in the following way:
databaseReference.orderByChild('_searchLastName')
.startAt(queryText)
.endAt(queryText+"\uf8ff")
The character \uf8ff used in the query is a very high code point in the Unicode range (it is a Private Usage Area [PUA] code). Because it is after most regular characters in Unicode, the query matches all values that start with queryText.
In this way, searching by "Fre" I could get the records having "Fred, Freddy, Frey" as value in _searchLastName property from the database.
Create two String variables
searchInputToLower = inputText.getText().toString().toLowerCase();
searchInputTOUpper = inputText.getText().toString().toUpperCase();
Then in the Query set it to:
DatabaseReference reference = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().getReference().child("Products");//Your firebase node you want to search inside..
FirebaseRecyclerOptions<Products> options =
new FirebaseRecyclerOptions.Builder<Products>()//the Products is a class that get and set Strings from Firebase Database.
.setQuery(reference.orderByChild("name").startAt(searchInputUpper).endAt(searchInputLower + "\uf8ff"),Products.class)
.build();
the "name" it's the node inside the Products Main Node.
the .startAt(searchInputUpper) & .endAt(searchInputLower + "\uf8ff") to make the search as contains all characters that typed in the inputText.getText() that you get.
finally I got it you can use where clause to get you result like SQL
LIKE keyword like% or %like
syntax :
Firestore.collection(collectionName).orderBy(field).where(field, ">=", keyword.toUpperCase()).where(field, "<=", keyword.toUpperCase() + "\uf8ff").get()
I my case used:
var query = 'text'
databaseReference.orderByChild('search_name')
.startAt(`%${query}%`)
.endAt(query+"\uf8ff")
.once("value")
In this way, searching by "test" I could get the records having "Test 1, Contest, One test" as value in 'search' property from the database.
Firebase is noSQL therefore it does not have searches built in like you'll find in SQL. You can either sort by values/key or you can equalto
https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/android/retrieve-data
You can find examples at the link above. That is the latest documentation for firebase.
If you are looking for SQL like searches. Then take a look at elastic search. But that will increase the complexity since you need a platform to put it on. For that i could recommend Heroku or maybe GoogleCloudServers
Here is a blog post about advanced searches with elastic search
https://firebase.googleblog.com/2014/01/queries-part-2-advanced-searches-with.html
This question might be old but there is a documented way of how to achieve this way, It is simple to implement. Quoted:
To enable full text search of your Cloud Firestore data, use a third-party search service like Algolia. Consider a note-taking app where each note is a document:
Algolia will be part of your firebase functions and will do all the searches you want.
// Update the search index every time a blog post is written.
exports.onNoteCreated = functions.firestore.document('notes/{noteId}').onCreate(event => {
// Get the note document
const note = event.data.data();
// Add an 'objectID' field which Algolia requires
note.objectID = event.params.noteId;
// Write to the algolia index
const index = client.initIndex(ALGOLIA_INDEX_NAME);
return index.saveObject(note);
});
To implement the search, the best way is to use instant search - android
Sample Search Image: GIF
The feature you're looking for is called full-text search and this is something most databases (including Firebase) don't provide out-of-the-box because it requires storing the data in a format that's optimized for text search (vs optimized for filtering) - these are two different problem sets with a different set of trade-offs.
So you would have to use a separate full-text search engine in conjunction with Firebase to be able to do this, especially if you need features like faceting, typo tolerance, merchandizing, etc.
You have a few options for a full-text search engine:
There's Algolia which is easy to get up and running but can get expensive quickly
There's ElasticSearch which has a steep learning curve but uber flexible
There's Typesense which aims to be an open source alternative to Algolia.
I don't know about the certainty of this approach but using the firebase version 10.2.6 on android, i get to do something like this:
firebaseDatabase.getReference("parent")
.orderByChild("childNode")
.startAt("[a-zA-Z0-9]*")
.endAt(searchString)
It seems to work well sometimes
Finally joined SO just to answer this.
For anyone coming here from/for the python firestore.client here's a solution that seems to work for me.
It's based on the accepted answer's concept but via the client rather than db.reference() and mixed with the answer from user12750908.
from firebase_admin import firestore
users = db.collection("users")\
.order_by("last_name")\
.where("last_name", ">=", last_name.upper())\
.where("last_name", "<=", last_name.lower() + "\uf8ff")\
.stream()
It works for the simple test I did, but I'll update my answer if I have issues with it later. And just a reminder, this is similar to
LIKE search%
and not
LIKE %search%.
Edit 1
I didn't see any tags for the question, but the title attribute mentions Android so this may not necessarily answer the question directly, but if you have a python API, this should work. I'm unfortunately not sure if there's an equivalent client/db separation in the Android version like there is in the Firebase Admin for Python. I didn't want to delete the answer since I hadn't seen any answers for firestore client during my search for a similar answer and hope it helps anyone else stumbling around.
Edit 09-03-2020 This works a portion of the time it seems. Most of the time I didn't seem to have an issue, but when I applied it to another project I was getting unexpected results. Long story short you may need to replicate how you save the data you're comparing against. For example, you may need to have a field to save the last_name in all caps and another field to save it in all lowercase, then you change the first where clause to compare last_name_upper and the second to compare last_name_lowercase. In my second project so far this seems to yield more accurate results so you may want to give that a try if the previous answer doesn't work well
EDIT 09-07-2020 Previous edit from 09-03-2020 is partially accurate. During my haste of thinking I had it fully resolved I completely forgot firebase doesn't let you use <, >, <=, >= across different fields. You may need to do two queries and merge them, but you'd probably still be reading more docs than you really intend. Doing the comparison against either the upper or lower version with the appropriate search term seems to give the original results expected from the original answer. For example:
.orderBy("last_name_upper")
.where("last_name_upper", ">=", this.searchForm.text.toUpperCase())
.where("last_name_upper", "<=", this.searchForm.text.toUpperCase() + "\uf8ff")
As firebase documentation, firebase doesn't support full text search.
But to do that you can use third-party tools.
Check this link to learn more https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/solutions/search

Categories

Resources