Using Firebase in a Vue App with Vuexfire — Add Document and Current Timestamp

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The Vuefire library lets us add Firebase database manipulation capabilities right from our Vue app.

In this article, we’ll look at how to use Vuefire and Vuexfire to add support for Cloud Firestore database manipulation into our Vue app.

Adding Documents to a Collection

We can add a document to a collection with the add method.

For example, we can write:

db.js

import firebase from "firebase/app";
import "firebase/firestore";
export const db = firebase
  .initializeApp({ projectId: "project-id" })
  .firestore();
const { Timestamp, GeoPoint } = firebase.firestore;
export { Timestamp, GeoPoint };

main.js

import Vue from "vue";
import App from "./App.vue";
import { firestorePlugin } from "vuefire";
import { vuexfireMutations, firestoreAction } from "vuexfire";
import Vuex from "vuex";
import { db } from "./db";
Vue.use(Vuex);
Vue.use(firestorePlugin);
Vue.config.productionTip = false;
const store = new Vuex.Store({
  state: {
    books: []
  },
  mutations: {
    ...vuexfireMutations
  },
  actions: {
    bindBooksRef: firestoreAction((context) => {
      return context.bindFirestoreRef(
        "books",
        db.collection("books").orderBy("title", "desc")
      );
    }),
    addBook: firestoreAction(async ({ state }, book) => {
      await db.collection("books").add(book);
      console.log("book added");
    })
  },
  getters: {
    books: (state) => {
      return state.books;
    }
  }
});
new Vue({
  store,
  render: (h) => h(App)
}).$mount("#app");

App.vue

<template>
  <div>
    <button @click="addBook">add book</button>
    <div>{{books}}</div>
  </div>
</template>
<script>
import { mapGetters, mapActions } from "vuex";
export default {
  data() {
    return {};
  },
  methods: {
    ...mapActions(["bindBooksRef"]),
    addBook() {
      this.$store.dispatch("addBook", { title: "qux" });
    }
  },
  computed: {
    ...mapGetters(["books"])
  },
  mounted() {
    this.bindBooksRef();
  }
};
</script>

We have the bindBookRef action to sync the Firebase books collection with the books state.

Also, we have the addBook action which calls add to add our book object into the books collection.

Then in App.vue , we call this.$store.dispatch method to dispatch the addBook action with the object we want to add.

The button runs the addBook method when we click it.

So when we click it, then the entry is added.

Current Timestamp

We can add the current timestamp at creation or update.

To do that, we can use the firebase.firestore.FieldValue.serverTimestamp method.

For example, we can write:

App.vue

<template>
  <div>
    <button @click="addBook">add book</button>
    <div>{{books}}</div>
  </div>
</template>
<script>
import { mapGetters, mapActions } from "vuex";
import firebase from "firebase/app";

export default {
  data() {
    return {};
  },
  methods: {
    ...mapActions(["bindBooksRef"]),
    addBook() {
      this.$store.dispatch("addBook", {
        title: "qux",
        createdAt: firebase.firestore.FieldValue.serverTimestamp()
      });
    }
  },
  computed: {
    ...mapGetters(["books"])
  },
  mounted() {
    this.bindBooksRef();
  }
};
</script>

We just use it anywhere we want to add a timestamp.

Then we get something like:

{ "createdAt": { "seconds": 1598895154, "nanoseconds": 675000000 }, "title": "qux" }

added to the books collection.

Conclusion

Vuexfire provides us with methods to add documents and current timestamps with our Vue app and Firebase.