Firebase + Android - Notifications ChildAdded - How to get only New Childs?

Question

I\'m trying to setup an Android Service in my app that listens for new Childs in a Firebase Ref, and throws a Notification when that happens.

I\'m having issues because

Answer 1

For me the logic was is to have value -"status" for example- which needs to be validated before deciding whether it is really new or was an old record then I set the "status" to a different value so I don't get it next time:

@Override
        public void onChildAdded(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot, String previousChildKey) {

                if(dataSnapshot.hasChildren()) {

                    String Id = (String) dataSnapshot.child("user_id").getValue();
                    String status = (String) dataSnapshot.child("status").getValue();

                    if (Id != null && Id.equals(storedId) && status != null && status.equals("created")) {
                        Log.d("INCOMING_REQUEST", "This is for you!");
                        sessionsRef.child(dataSnapshot.getKey()).child("status").setValue("received");
                    }

                }


        }

Answer 2

If you have a field modifiedOn, you can index that and setup a query like:

Query byModified = firebaseEndpoint.orderByChild("modifiedOn").startAt(lastInAppTime);

Answer 3

I overcome this problem by keeping items of firebase database reference node in a List; and whenever onChildAdded(...) method is triggered, check if the incoming datasnapshot is in your list or not; if not, then it's new data

In order to achieve this you must meet below conditions:

1. Have a unique value that must not repeated from item to item. (this can be easily achieved when you add items into Firebase using .push() method.
2. Override .equals() method of your model class in order to fulfill the comparison based on this unique value.

Here code snippets based on your inputs

Model class

public class AllowedGroup {

    private String id;
    public static List<AllowedGroup> sGroups;

    // reset of fields ...


    public AllowedGroup() {
    }

    public String getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(String id) {
        this.id = id;
    }


    @Override
    public boolean equals(@Nullable Object o) {

        // If the object is compared with itself then return true
        if (o == this) {
            return true;
        }

        // Check if o is an instance of AllowedGroup or not
        if (!(o instanceof AllowedGroup)) {
            return false;
        }

        // typecast o to AllowedGroup so that we can compare data members
        AllowedGroup group = (AllowedGroup) o;

        // Compare data based on the unique id
        return (group.id).equals(id);
    }

}

Listening to firebase added nodes

@Override
public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    this.handler = new ChildEventListener() {
        @Override
        public void onChildAdded(@NonNull DataSnapshot dataSnapshot, @Nullable String s) {

            AllowedGroup group = dataSnapshot.getValue(AllowedGroup.class);

            if (!AllowedGroup.sGroups.contains(group)) {
                // Here you'll receive only the new added values
            }

        }

        // ...rest of needed overrides, not used... 
    }

}