Develop Reference

How should the structure be built for Firebase Requests

Brief information: I am working on a quiz application for Android. The database is on Firebase and the users login via anonymously. When the user opened the application, it will be automatically signed-in.
My question is about firebase. I could not build the intelligence for firebase requests.
When the application is opened;
1) signInAnonymously (which firebase function) should be called first.
2) Then i check that the signed user has a saved point or not on firebase database.
3) If the user does not have point, it is generated.
4) Then i send a request to get the point of user.
In all steps, i send a request to firebase via async firebase methods. The sequence is important because the output of any step can be an input for the next step.
I handle this via callback. But i do not know that it is the best way.
screenshots of callbacks for these steps
Can you give me advice for these? If i do not use callbacks, problems are occured because of asynchronous firebase methods. The reason of that i open this issue is undetermined problems. I can learn and build any other algorithm to make it better. Thank you.

It looks like you are using nested callbacks and I am not a Java programmer, but you may want to take it easy on yourself and not go that route.
If my signing in anonymously you mean a One-Time-Password authentication flow such as just providing a phone number, that would definitely be a good approach.
You can use Google Cloud Functions, but the functions would have to be written in Nodejs, Python or Go.
Either way take a look at this flow below:
User requests OTP
Acknowledge the request
Generate code, save the code on backend (GCF)
Text user the code
User sends you the correct code
Compare codes on the server
Send user some kind of token or as you say a "point" to identify them.
I do believe Java does have support for JSON Web Tokens.
So after your setup GCF project, you are going to get some folder and files like so:
.firebaserc: a hidden file that helps you quickly switch between projects with firebase use.
firebase.json: describes properties for your project.
functions/: this folder contains all the code for your functions.
functions/package.json: an NPM package file describing your Cloud Functions.
functions/index.js: the main source for your Cloud Functions code.
functions/node_modules/: the folder where all your NPM dependencies are installed.
You want to import the needed modules and initialize the app:
const admin = require("firebase-admin");
const functions = require("firebase-functions");
const serviceAccount = require("./service_account.json");
admin.initializeApp({
credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount),
databaseURL: "https://my-project.firebaseio.com"
});
That service_account.json is something you need to create, its not a library.
It will have a bunch of private and public keys that you get from your Firebase console. Ensure you also place that file inside your .gitignore files as well.
So I am skipping some crucial details here that you will have to figure out so as to get to your main question.
First, you need the idea of a user, so you need to create a user inside GCF so that in itself is going to be a function and as you mentioned Firebase is asynchronous so it would look something like this:
const admin = require("firebase-admin");
module.exports = function(req, res) {
// Verify the user provided a phone
if (!req.body.phone) {
return res.status(422).send({ error: "Bad Input" });
}
// Format the phone number to remove dashes and parens
const phone = String(req.body.phone).replace(/[^\d]/g, "");
// Create a new user account using that phone number
admin
.auth()
.createUser({ uid: phone })
.then(user => res.send(user))
.catch(err => res.status(422).send({ error: err }));
// Respond to user request saying account was made
};
So the code above I grabbed from a previous project of mine, except the whole thing was in JavaScript. For you this part will be in JavaScript or Nodejs specifically as well since again, Nodejs, Go or Python are the only languages supported by GCF.
So the comments are self-explanatory but I feel compelled to explain that the first thing I had to resolve is how to pass in information to this function in a request.
To do that I had to reference the req.body object as you see above. req.body contains all the different data that was passed to this function when the user called it. I was not sure if you knew that. So before you go and copy paste what I have above, do a res.send(req.body);. So nothing else inside that module.exports = function(req, res) {} except res.send(req.body);, so you can get a good sense of how this all works.
For every function you create you need to run a firebase deploy name-of-project.
After you feel you have a handle on this and its all working successfully, you can create your Android Studio project and add the database dependency like so:
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-database:10.2.1'
And then you will probably want to create your User model, maybe like this:
public class User {
public String phone;
public User() {
// Default constructor required for calls to DataSnapshot.getValue(User.class)
}
public User(String phone) {
this.phone = phone;
}
}
And so on, anyway I hope that kind of gives you a good enough idea that it gets you going. Best of luck. I know I failed to take time out to explain that the regex in my code is to sanitize the phone number and probably some other stuff. So again, don't just copy paste what I offered, study it.

call a Google Spreadsheets Apps Script function from Google Sheets API v4

I have a Spreadsheet with some Apps Script functions bound to it.
I also have an Android client using Google Sheets API v4 to interact with that spreadsheet.
Is there a way for the Android client to call/run some function in the Apps Script code?
The reason I need to code to be run on the Apps Script side, and not simply on the Android client, is because I'm sending some email when something happens to the doc, and I would like the email to be sent from the owner account of the spreadsheet, and not from the Android user authenticated via the API.
I know I can trigger functions implicitly like by adding rows to a doc, but is there a way to directly run a specific function?

Yes. You can make GET and POST requests to Google apps-scripts. from anywhere that can make REST type calls including clients. If you need authentication there is also the apps-script client libraries. I wrote a short script for emailing from a request from one apps-script to another here. But, it would work if you called the emailing script from your client also.

Deploy your Google Apps Script as Web Apps > reference, by this way you can run function Get(e) or Post(e) and invoke other functions inside one of them with conditions....

You might have gotten the answer to your question. Just in case you have not, below are some points that may help with your development:
1) Create the server side script (i.e., Google Apps Script) function like usual:
function myFunction(inputVar) {
// do something
return returnVar;
}
2) Create a doGet(e) or doPost(e) function like below - can be in the same .gs file with the function in 1) :
function doGet(e) {
var returnVar = "";
if (e.parameter.par1 != null) {
var inputVar = e.parameter.par1;
returnVar = myFunction(inputVar);
}
return HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(returnVar);
}
3) Publish and deploy your project as webapp. Note the deployed URL.
4) From your Android client do HTTP call with the URL as: your_webapp_url?par1="input value"

How to add email verification in a parse server

I recently migrated my database from my Parse account to MongoLab and I've also set up a Parse Server on Heroku. Everything is working great except that I want to add an email verification feature using the emailVerified parameter that exists in Parse and I don't see how to do it because I didn't had the option activated before migrating my database.
Thanks.

I think you might have to add the feature yourself using a combination of Cloud Code and a mailing service such as Mandril or SendGrid.
Cannot currently find the reference, but believe I saw somewhere that this is the case.
It would make sense as any mailing service would need some form of credentials in order to handle emailing.
You could of course also have a look at the source code to verify: https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server

You can use SendGrid for this. You need to install parse-server-sendgrid-adapter to your parse-server directory.
Run this command inside your parse-server directory:
npm i parse-server-sendgrid-adapter
After installation finishes. You need to set variables inside your index.js file.
var SimpleSendGridAdapter = require('parse-server-sendgrid-adapter');
And add these to your var api = new ParseServer function as parameters:
.
.
.
appName: '', //enter your app name
publicServerURL: '', //enter your server url
verifyUserEmails: true,
emailAdapter: new SimpleSendGridAdapter({
apiKey: '***', //enter your api key
fromAddress: '' //the address that mails will be sending.
}),
customPages: {
invalidLink: 'http://yourpage/link_invalid.html',
verifyEmailSuccess: 'http://yourpage/verify_email_success.html',
choosePassword: 'http://yourpage/new_password.html',
passwordResetSuccess: 'http://yourpage/sucess.html'
},
.
.
.
Also enable email verification from your app's Parse dashboard.

Access database in Cordova

I am very new to cordova developing. I am trying to develop one login page in android app, i need to access username and password from database for checking credential. Now i am hosting one web service and just pass the user name and password to that service using ajax request and proceed based on value returned from webservice. I dont know is this the correct procedure?. I am sending user name and password through ajax post, i think its insecure.Can you please suggest the best wasy to access database in cordova? I am using visual studio IDE for developing. I used following code to send username and pwd to webservice.
$.ajax({
url: 'localhost\service\Controller',// hostedd in iis
data: JSON.stringify({ username: 'user1', password: 'pwd' }),
sucess: function (data) {
//perform operation for login success
},
error: function () {
}
})
Thanks

Follow these steps:
If you use external urls, then white listen them:
http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/dev/guide/appdev/whitelist/index.html
Use only https.
Verify the footprint of your cert by using this plugin:
http://plugreg.com/plugin/EddyVerbruggen/SSLCertificateChecker-PhoneGap-Plugin
Don't send the password, send the hash of the password. Use the same algorithm which you use in the backend for creating the hash.
Create a device UUID, save it on the device and send it to the backend and save it the first time, the device called the backend. Use this UUID for logging the device activity.
On every request to the backend, send the device UUID and check it.
Make sure, that you have a way in the backend to stop the activity of a device and user.
In some of my apps, I use the device UUID for individual encryption.
If you want, you can encrypt your whole app by using this plugin:
http://plugreg.com/plugin/EddyVerbruggen/SSLCertificateChecker-PhoneGap-Plugin
In some of my apps (B2B apps), I use an authorization which is working via QR code. In the backend I create some individual «secure Infos» and show them as an QR code. In the app you have a barcodescanner which scans the info , which is then saved on the device. Works great and this is a good way to have individual keys on the devices.

Upload assignment on Moodle using REST webservice function

I am trying to develop a Moodle Android app. I am using MoodleREST source code for my reference. But rest code to upload assignment is not provided by this library. I want to be able to upload assignment from mobile client with a webservice call. Uploading assignment using a webview is possible but in that case user need to login again to access upload assignment page.
I have found something similar here https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=207875.
I am new to moodle and still learning it, so my question can be a little naive so please bear with it :)

It is kind of possible to upload a submission with a file to the assignment using Moodle webservices.
First upload a file to draft using core_files_upload
http://my-moodle-url/moodle/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=token_value_xyz&moodlewsrestformat=json&wsfunction=core_files_upload&component=user&filearea=draft&itemid=0&filepath=/&filename=test2.txt&filecontent=TWFuIGlzIGRpc3Rpbmd1aXNoZWQ=&contextlevel=user&instanceid=8
where:
itemid=0 - moodle will generate and return an itemid or you set itemid
filecontent - base64 encoded file contents
instanceid - userId whose is webservices token
Sample response:
{
"contextid": 26,
"component": "user",
"filearea": "draft",
"itemid": 293005570,
"filepath": "/",
"filename": "test3.txt",
"url": "http://my-moodle-url/moodle/draftfile.php/26/user/draft/293005570/test3.txt"
}
You can search for an assignment id for the next call with mod_assign_get_assignments
Then use itemid received, here "293005570", in mod_assign_save_submission
http://my-moodle-url/moodle/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=token_value_xyz&moodlewsrestformat=json&wsfunction=mod_assign_save_submission&assignmentid=5&plugindata[onlinetext_editor][text]
=some_text_here&plugindata[onlinetext_editor][format]
=1&plugindata[onlinetext_editor][itemid]=521767865&plugindata[files_filemanager]=521767865
This will add an assignment submission with this file.
The problem I could core_files_upload and mod_assign_save_submission only using a webservices token for a particular user, i.e. each user needs a webservices token which might be not practical. With a webservices user token I get on the first call:
{
"exception": "moodle_exception",
"errorcode": "nofile",
"message": "File not specified"
}
Tested with Postman. This might be related: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-61276

Doesnt look like there is existing solution for this in moodle web services. Moodle actually encodes files in base64 which creates burden on mobile devices. Mobile devices dont have that much memory to encode big files.
Closet solution published by Moodle HQ (and otherwise) is this : https://github.com/moodlehq/sample-ws-clients/blob/master/PHP-HTTP-filehandling/client.php which saves file as private file and not as assignment. You may have to modify substantially the plugin.

To upload files I'm using this API with a POST method
https://{YOUR_URL}/webservice/upload.php?moodlewsrestformat=json&wstoken={WSTOKEN}
And you must pass the following parameters as FormData
file => File // your file
token => Int // same user's wstoken
filearea => String // draft, private... etc
itemid => Int // set to 0 to create a new file