Checking for data uniqueness in AngularFire

Question

Using AngularFire, I want to add an object to my angularFireCollection ONLY if the "name" is unique. My data is structured like so:

- ClientList
    - dsk32923k   <-Random unique ID created by AngularFire
        - name : Brian
        - birthday : 3/9/82
          ...
    - skjdsjkl3  
        - name : John
        - birthday : 6/3/90
          ...

For example, I wish to verify that "Brian" is a unique name before adding the data object to the ClientList. I want this to be accomplished inside an Angular controller. What is the "Angular way" of making that happen?

Answer 1

It's a bit hard to do this with angularFireCollection without iterating over all the entries to check for duplicates. It might be easier to use angularFire and use the name as the unique key:

function MyController($scope, angularFire) {
  var url = "https://<my-firebase>.firebaseio.com/ClientList";
  var promise = angularFire(url, $scope, "users", {});
  promise.then(function() {
    $scope.addUser = function(user) {
      if ($scope.users[user.name]) {
        throw new Error("User already exists!");
      } else {
        $scope.users[name] = user;
      }
    }
  });
}

Hope this helps!