Retrieve a randomly generated child identifier from Firebase

Question

I have Firebase generating random keys for my entries in a Swift application. How do I find this key if I want to change a specific record? In my example below, I note that the task is completed, but when I click the button, it does not work properly, because I am not referring to a specific task, but to reference the task I need a random generated key.

func doneHit(cell:TaskCell) { if let ip = tableView.indexPathForCell(cell) { var task = tasksInSectionArray[ip.section][ip.row] let tasksRef = ref.childByAppendingPath("tasks") ref.observeSingleEventOfType(.Value, withBlock: { snapshot in let doneRef = tasksRef.childByAppendingPath("\(snapshot.key)/done") if task.done == false { task.done = true cell.checkBox.image = UIImage(named: "checkedbox") doneRef.setValue(task.done) } else { task.done = false cell.checkBox.image = UIImage(named: "uncheckedbox") doneRef.setValue(task.done) } let completedByRef = tasksRef.childByAppendingPath("\(snapshot.key)/completedBy") if task.done == true { completedByRef.setValue(self.user) cell.detailLabel.text = "Completed By: \(self.user)" } else { completedByRef.setValue("") cell.detailLabel.text = "" } }) } } 

My Firebase structure:

• tasks
  • randomly generated identifier
    • Title:
    • Description:
  • randomly generated identifier
    • Title:
    • Description:

Update 1:

I updated my code to get identifiers for all tasks, but the backend update functionality does not work correctly. This allows you to update tasks created in the application. There are 150 tasks that I imported using the web panel. These are the ones I cannot update.

 func doneHit(cell:TaskCell) { if let ip = tableView.indexPathForCell(cell) { var task = tasksInSectionArray[ip.section][ip.row] let tasksRef = ref.childByAppendingPath("tasks") var taskID = "" tasksRef.observeSingleEventOfType(.Value, withBlock: { snapshot in for task in snapshot.children { let _tasks = task as! FDataSnapshot let id = _tasks.key print(id) taskID = id } let doneRef = tasksRef.childByAppendingPath("\(taskID)/done") if task.done == false { task.done = true cell.checkBox.image = UIImage(named: "checkedbox") doneRef.setValue(task.done) } else { task.done = false cell.checkBox.image = UIImage(named: "uncheckedbox") doneRef.setValue(task.done) } let completedByRef = tasksRef.childByAppendingPath("\(taskID)/completedBy") if task.done == true { completedByRef.setValue(self.user) cell.detailLabel.text = "Completed By: \(self.user)" } else { completedByRef.setValue("") cell.detailLabel.text = "" } }) } } 

Answer 1

 tasksRef.observeSingleEventOfType(.Value, withBlock: { snapshot in for task in snapshot.children { guard let taskSnapshot = task as? FDataSnapshot else { continue } let id = task.key // do other things } } 

Answer 2

To create a randomly generated key, you need to use childByAutoId() (which I don't see in your code example).
This will return a Firebase link that you can use, and which will return a key with it .key property

 var post1Ref = ref.childByAutoId() post1Ref.setValue(post1) var postId = post1Ref.key 

See documentation here

Answer 3

After Tim's answer to Swift 3 and Firebase 4 I had to use below

 for task in snapshot.children { guard let taskSnapshot = task as? DataSnapshot else { continue } let id = taskSnapshot.key