References are not working as expected with Cloud Functions in the Emulator UI

[HasarAli]

I have two collections, users and services. Every service has a reference (reference type) to the user that created it. I wrote a cloud function to access the user object and set "isServiceProvider" to true every time a service is added to the services collection.

exports.updateProviderStatus = functions.firestore .document("services/{serviceId}") .onCreate((snap, context) => { const userRef = snap.data().user.ref; return userRef.update({isServiceProvier: true}); });

I tried "testing" the function through the Emulator UI where I would manually add a service with a reference to an existing user, but every time, the reference would change to an empty string, and the value in users collection wouldn't change.

I ended up just deploying since I was just experimenting this project anyways, and the function works. I used the same method of adding a service manually through the Firestore UI on the console.

[yuchenshi]

When the reference changes to an empty string, is there any error in your browser developer tool? Also, would you mind uploading a screencast? These will help us pin down the issue.

[HasarAli]

I recorded screencast of the function failing on the emulator and succeeding online. https://youtu.be/Gt8R2pjPFOY

Here is the error from my debug file. Jan 31, 2022 5:35:38 PM com.google.cloud.datastore.emulator.impl.events.FunctionsEmulatorEventPublisher sendHttpRequest WARNING: Unsuccessful HTTP response when publishing event for projects/fireship-firebase-basics-d77c5/triggers/us-central1-updateProviderStatus-0: 500 Internal Server Error TypeError: userRef.update is not a function at /home/ubuntu-hasar/github/firebasics/functions/index.js:14:22 at cloudFunction (/home/ubuntu-hasar/github/firebasics/functions/node_modules/firebase-functions/lib/cloud-functions.js:135:23) at /home/ubuntu-hasar/.nvm/versions/node/v17.4.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/emulator/functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:560:16 at runFunction (/home/ubuntu-hasar/.nvm/versions/node/v17.4.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/emulator/functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:547:15) at runBackground (/home/ubuntu-hasar/.nvm/versions/node/v17.4.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/emulator/functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:559:11) at processBackground (/home/ubuntu-hasar/.nvm/versions/node/v17.4.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/emulator/functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:542:11) at invokeTrigger (/home/ubuntu-hasar/.nvm/versions/node/v17.4.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/emulator/functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:624:19) at handleMessage (/home/ubuntu-hasar/.nvm/versions/node/v17.4.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/emulator/functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:717:15) at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5) Jan 31, 2022 5:35:39 PM io.gapi.emulators.netty.HttpVersionRoutingHandler channelRead INFO: Detected non-HTTP/2 connection.

[psupina]

I have the similar problem with the Firebase Emulator UI - not saving the DocumentReference to the Firestore Emulator. And it doesn't even have to be embedded in the Map.

firebase --version 10.2.1

In the browser DevTools Network's tab I can see a POST request with a payload containing: "uid":{"stringValue":""}

Even when I set the type "reference" for the "uid" field and provided a correct path to an existing document.

Therefore I assume the problem is somewhere within the Emulator UI's React application.

Problem might be here: https://github.com/firebase/firebase-tools-ui/blob/master/src/components/Firestore/DocumentEditor/utils.ts#L157

[psupina]

Seems to be a duplicate of #554

[aalej]

Closing this as a duplicate of #554. Please refer to the other issue for updates.