Using Firestore with Typescript

firestore.ts

/**
 * This Gist is part of a medium article - read here:
 * https://jamiecurnow.medium.com/using-firestore-with-typescript-65bd2a602945
 */

// import firstore (obviously)
import { firestore } from "firebase-admin"

// Import or define your types
// import { YourType } from '~/@types'
interface YourType {
  firstName: string
  lastName: string
  isGreat: boolean
  blackLivesMatter: true
}

interface YourOtherType {
  something: boolean
  somethingElse: boolean
}

// This helper function pipes your types through a firestore converter
const converter = <T>() => ({
  toFirestore: (data: Partial<T>) => data,
  fromFirestore: (snap: FirebaseFirestore.QueryDocumentSnapshot) => snap.data() as T
})

// This helper function exposes a 'typed' version of firestore().collection(collectionPath)
// Pass it a collectionPath string as the path to the collection in firestore
// Pass it a type argument representing the 'type' (schema) of the docs in the collection
const dataPoint = <T>(collectionPath: string) => firestore().collection(collectionPath).withConverter(converter<T>())

// Construct a database helper object
const db = {
  // list your collections here
  users: dataPoint<YourType>('users'),
  userPosts: (userId: string) => dataPoint<YourOtherType>(`users/${userId}/posts`)
}

// export your helper
export { db }
export default db

/**
 * Some examples of how to use:
 */

const example = async (id: string) => {
  // firestore just as you know it, but with types
  const userDoc = await db.users.doc(id).get()
  const { blackLivesMatter } = userDoc.data()
  return blackLivesMatter === true // obviously
}

const createExample = async (userId: string) => {
  await db.userPosts(userId).doc().create({
    something: false,
    somethingElse: true
  })
}

// Always use set for updates as firestore doesn't type update function correctly yet!
const updateExample = async (id: string) => {
  await db.users.doc(id).set({
    firstName: 'Jamie',
    blackLivesMatter: true
  }, { merge: true })
}

This uses Firebase v10.4.0, based on the withConverter example in the docs: https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/query-data/get-data#custom_objects

Instead of getting the document, this just returns the reference. The document is converted to/from a model class instance.

/* eslint-disable @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any */
import {
  getFirestore,
  doc,
  type FirestoreDataConverter,
  type PartialWithFieldValue,
  type DocumentData,
  type QueryDocumentSnapshot
} from 'firebase/firestore'
import firebaseApp from '../config'
import { User } from './models/User'

const db = getFirestore(firebaseApp)

const converter = <T>(ModelClass: new (data: any) => T): FirestoreDataConverter<T> => ({
  toFirestore: (data: PartialWithFieldValue<T>): PartialWithFieldValue<DocumentData> =>
    data as PartialWithFieldValue<DocumentData>,
  fromFirestore: (snapshot: QueryDocumentSnapshot<DocumentData>): T => {
    const data = snapshot.data()
    return new ModelClass(data) as T
  }
})

const typedRef = <T>(ModelClass: new (data: any) => T, path: string, ...pathSegments: string[]) => {
  return doc(db, path, ...pathSegments).withConverter(converter<T>(ModelClass))
}

const docRef = {
  user: (uid: string) => typedRef<User>(User, 'users', uid)
}

export { docRef }

// Example

const ref = docRef.user(uid)
const docSnap = await getDoc(ref)
if (docSnap.exists()) {
  // Convert to User
  const user = docSnap.data()
  // Use User instance method
  console.log(user.toString())
} else {
  console.log('No such document!')
}

Is anyone using the generic converter with VueFire? Would love to see how you adapted it to work with this: https://vuefire.vuejs.org/guide/realtime-data.html#Firestore-withConverter-

Coming from google.

Seems like there are two FirestoreDataConverters, one from @firebase/firestore and the other from firebase-admin/firestore.

And fromFirestore implementation for each is totally different.

I'm using a shared codebase. My solution was this:

// rename the imports
import { FirestoreDataConverter as FrontendFirestoreDataConverter } from "@firebase/firestore";
import { FirestoreDataConverter as BackendFirestoreDataConverter, DocumentData, QueryDocumentSnapshot } from "firebase-admin/firestore";

// create different converters for frontend and backend
export const FrontendResourceConverter: FrontendFirestoreDataConverter<Resource> = {
  fromFirestore(snapshot, options) {
    return {
      id: snapshot.id,
      ...snapshot.data(options) as Omit<Resource, "id">,
    }
  },
  toFirestore(resource) {
    // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars
    const { id, ...rest } = resource;
    return rest;
  }
}

export const BackendResourceConverter: BackendFirestoreDataConverter<Resource> = {
  fromFirestore(snapshot: QueryDocumentSnapshot<DocumentData>) { // notice how there's no options here
    const data = snapshot.data();

    return {
      id: snapshot.id,
      ...data as Omit<Resource, "id">,
    }
  },
  toFirestore(resource) {
    // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars
    const { id, ...rest } = resource;
    return rest;
  }
}

I can't destruct the typed object returning from doc.data().

export interface User {
  id: number;
  name: string;
  email: string;
}

// omitting converter & dataPoint functions

const db = {
  users: dataPoint<User>("users"),
};

Then in a Cloud Function I have:

const userDoc = await db.users.doc("12345").get();
const { email } = userDoc.data(); // error message: "Property 'email' does not exist on type 'Partial<User> | undefined'"

This should pretty much do the trick of having typed results from Firestore, however, the error message above keeps preventing typescript from compiling the code.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

@erayerdin As of latest versions (firebase 11.0.1, firebase-admin 13.0.0) types for both FirestoreDataConverters are identical. Check out js & node.

@erayerdin As of latest versions (firebase 11.0.1, firebase-admin 13.0.0) types for both FirestoreDataConverters are identical. Check out js & node.

Note, if you're using modular Firebase this is not correct. The Types have subtle differences. But that comment might hold true if youre using the namespaced version.

• JavaScript Modular (v9): https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/js/firestore_.firestoredataconverter
• JavaScript Namespaced (v8): https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/js/v8/firebase.firestore.FirestoreDataConverter
• Node: https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/node/firebase.firestore.FirestoreDataConverter

This is my current version which works well in my monorepo which has both front end (JS Modular) and backend (Node) setup. I am also using VueFire so some extra stuff there for that but you can adjust as needed:

import type {
  QueryDocumentSnapshot as BackendQueryDocumentSnapshot,
  WithFieldValue as BackendWithFieldValue,
} from "firebase-admin/firestore";
import type {
  DocumentData,
  QueryDocumentSnapshot as FrontendQueryDocumentSnapshot,
  WithFieldValue as FrontendWithFieldValue,
  SnapshotOptions,
} from "firebase/firestore";

// This custom converter function adds a non-enumerable 'id' property to Firestore documents, a VueFire requirement.
// Unlike VueFire's default converter that handles 'null' values, this implementation assumes Firestore collections automatically exclude non-existent documents, eliminating the need for 'null'.
// This results in cleaner types for VueFire's useCollection() like "Ref<WithId<User>[]>", and aligns with useDocument()'s return type "_RefFirestore<WithId<User> | undefined>", which already accounts for potentially missing documents using undefined.
// The generic type <T extends DocumentData> also ensures flexibility and type safety across various Firestore collections.
// Reference to VueFire's default converter: https://github.com/vuejs/vuefire/blob/1e2c71e88c28e886e701f4e41ad25973a1945c2a/src/firestore/utils.ts#L20

export const frontendConverter = <T extends DocumentData>() => ({
  // Add non-enumerable 'id' property to Firestore documents, which is a requirement for VueFire
  fromFirestore: (
    snapshot: FrontendQueryDocumentSnapshot<T, DocumentData>, // Firebase V9 requires two type arguments
    options?: SnapshotOptions,
  ) => {
    return Object.defineProperties(snapshot.data(options), {
      id: { value: snapshot.id },
    });
  },
  // This is okay because the "id" added below is non-enumerable and therefore will not be sent to Firestore
  toFirestore: (data: FrontendWithFieldValue<T>) => data,
});

// This is a similar and simpler version of the frontendConverter above
// Backend version is required because of different Firestore SDKs and types

export const backendConverter = <T>() => ({
  fromFirestore: (snapshot: BackendQueryDocumentSnapshot<T>) => snapshot.data(),
  toFirestore: (data: BackendWithFieldValue<T>) => data,
});