Cloud function query returning null even though it should return a value

Question

This is the structure of the database,

Content {
   "randomID" {
      "randomID2" {
         "text": "Hello World"
             }
      }
}

I'm trying to do a query in cloud functions, to check if text is equalTo a specific value but it always returns null

admin.database().ref('Content').orderByChild('text').equalTo("someText").once('value').then(snapshot => {

     console.log(snapshot.val()); -> this returns null

})

I'm pretty sure the issue is that I have two random ID's there, also wildcards don't work for .once('value') like they do for onUpdate I believe. Or I'm doing something wrong as I'm quite new to Javascript.

@peterhaddad randomID is the userID, inside userID, I have all the random2 ids which point to a specific conversation. — Don, Feb 03 '18 at 16:13
Firebase Database query check the **direct child nodes** of the location you run them against. So in your case it checks whether `/Content/randomID` has a property `text` with value `sometext`. In the data you shared it doesn't have that, so nothing is returned. Firebase queries do not test against nested child nodes. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27207059/firebase-query-double-nested — Frank van Puffelen, Feb 03 '18 at 16:59
@FrankvanPuffelen so I should fetch without OrderByChild first, then do another fetch .ref('Content/' + snapshot.val()).once('value'), won't this cause a lot of data usage? Because in my app, "Content" has a lot of nodes. — Don, Feb 03 '18 at 17:20
You'll need to restructure (or add an additional structure) to allow the use-case you want. Downloading too much data is a bad idea, so add a structure that allows the query. The answer I linked has an example of that. — Frank van Puffelen, Feb 03 '18 at 17:24

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 03 '18 at 16:13

1

admin.database().ref('Content').orderByChild('text')

should be changed to

admin.database().ref('Content/{randomID}/{randomID2}').orderByChild('text')

you can't skip the ids in the reference

answered Feb 03 '18 at 16:13

Alex Mounir

1,243
1
14
20

Unfortunately, that doesn't work. It still returns null, I'm 100% sure that equalTo("some text") should return a value because I intentionally did so but it doesn't :/ – Don Feb 03 '18 at 16:15
does it return a value without the equalTo? – Alex Mounir Feb 03 '18 at 16:16
No it still returns null – Don Feb 03 '18 at 16:21
did u update the reference to include the ids as in the answer? – Alex Mounir Feb 03 '18 at 16:22
Yes, still returns null, not really sure why. – Don Feb 03 '18 at 16:22
Ok, u can back trace the nodes start at Content -> Content/{rId} and check if the return values and try without the orderByChild plus check if the text is indexed – Alex Mounir Feb 03 '18 at 16:25
still returning null and yes "text" is indexed. I'm not sure if admin.database().ref() supports wildcards – Don Feb 03 '18 at 16:37
https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/admin/node/admin.database.Reference – Alex Mounir Feb 03 '18 at 16:53
Go back to the root and start from there admin.database().ref(); with no order or equal queries and start adding or make multiple versions and see which returns a value – Alex Mounir Feb 03 '18 at 16:54

Cloud function query returning null even though it should return a value

1 Answers1