Angularfire: Firestore document .update() not working as intended

[markgoho]

Version info

Angular: 4.3

Firebase: 4.5.0

AngularFire: 5.0 rc1

Other (e.g. Ionic/Cordova, Node, browser, operating system):

How to reproduce these conditions

https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-abcgfq?file=app%2Fapp.component.ts

I think stackblitz is having trouble with the AngularFire2 import, if you get the red squiggly under angularfire2/firestore go to dependencies, delete the library and re-install

Steps to set up and reproduce

Create an AngularFirestoreDocument call .update() on it with a single field (of a larger object) and it is not accepted.

Sample data and security rules n/a

<-- include/attach/link to some json sample data (or provide credentials to a sanitized, test Firebase project) -->

Debug output

* Errors in the JavaScript console *

* Output from firebase.database().enableLogging(true); *

* Screenshots *

Expected behavior

I would expect that I can update a single field on a larger object as per the Firestore docs

Actual behavior

Typescript is telling me:

Argument of type '{ votes: number; }' is not assignable to parameter of type 'Post'.
  Property 'text' is missing in type '{ votes: number; }'.

That is to say, "We're looking for you to pass in the whole Post object, not just one field."

[LennyZ71]

Not only the partial typescript issue but it appears .update() is not creating a document if it doesn't already exist. .set() works.

const path = `users/${this.currentUserId}`; // Endpoint on firebase

    this.userDocument = this.afs.doc<any>(path);

    const data = {
      email: this.authState.email,
      name: this.authState.displayName
    }

    this.userDocument.update(data) // .set() works correctly right here...
      .catch(error => console.log(error));
  }

[itjustwerks]

According to the Node.js documentation for "Set a document" at https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/manage-data/add-data:

The option to merge data is not yet available for Node.js. Instead, call the update method and pass the option to create the document if it's missing.

I couldn't find that feature documented anywhere, but tried appending "create: true" to the update request and it works swimmingly.

// Updates "widget-1" doc if it exists, or creates it if it doesn't
db.collection('widgets').doc('widget-1').update({
   thingamajig: true
}, { create: true });

[ghost]

@itjustwerks can you tell me why using create: true I get [ts] Expected 1 arguments, but got 2. from my linter? What could it be that I have different from you?

"angularfire2": "^5.0.0-rc.3",
"firebase": "^4.5.2"

constructor(
    private db: AngularFirestore
)

const userRef: AngularFirestoreDocument<any> = this.db.collection('users').doc(user.uid);
const data: User = {
    // some data
};
return userRef.update(data, { create: true });

[ghost]

Ok I got it:

[...]
const userRef = this.db.firestore.collection('users').doc(user.uid);
[...]
return userRef
    .get()
    .then(doc => {
        if (!doc.exists) {
            userRef.set(data);
        } else {
            userRef.update(data);
        }
    })
    .catch(err => {
        console.log(`[LOGIN] ${err}`);
    });
[...]

[itjustwerks]

@Azmos , my bad. The {create: true} 2nd parameter is only applicable to the firebase-admin Node.js library for some reason. I just tried it myself for the web today and got the same error as you. I ended up doing the set in the catch block if there was an error on the update, but your solution is better for sure. Thanks!

[Venryx]

It seems you can also do:

userRef.set(data, {merge: true});

As documented here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/manage-data/add-data

Am I missing something which would make this different than update(data, {create: true})?

EDIT: Nevermind, this project uses the NodeJS client instead of the web client. (odd that they would implement set(...{merge: true}) in one, and update(...{create: true}) in the other)

[ghost]

Tried once again and neither of them work on my code, in my case checking "manually" if the document exists is the only way to achieve that.

[lokesh75way]

Tried once again and neither of them work on my code, in my case checking "manu