Does Integrify only update it's target collections when one of it's master fields updates?

[narkeeso]

We have Integrify setup with one collection to try it out and I think one misconception was that Integrify would copy over fields when a new document was created on the target collection. Example:

export const replicateUsers = integrify({
  rule: "REPLICATE_ATTRIBUTES",
  source: {
    collection: "users",
  },
  targets: [
    {
      collection: "projects",
      foreignKey: "user.id",
      attributeMapping: {
        username: "user.username",
        avatar: "user.avatar",
      },
    },
  ],
});

Are these attributes only replicated when the master collection fields are updated? Are we still responsible for creating the initial payload with intended replicated attributes?

[anishkny]

@narkeeso thanks for trying out integrify!

Yes, you are correct. The attributes are replicated from source to target only upon updating of the source document. The target document(s) need to exist for integrify to modify them.

Fundamentally, REPLICATE_ATTRIBUTES creates a Firestore onUpdate trigger, which is only called when a document exists and its value is changed (see Cloud Firestore triggers docs).

This is best suited for so called "one-to-many" relationships as explained in the introductory blog post.

The reason for this is that integrify cannot predict how many target documents to create every time a new source document is created. In your example, every time a user document is created, how many project documents should be created? 0, 1, many? REPLICATE_ATTRIBUTES assumes that the required target documents already exist and updates their field values to follow the source document.

A workaround maybe to create a Firestore onCreate trigger on the users collection to create the required document(s) in the projects collection.

HTH

Edit: Created issue to try and clarify this point in the docs: #78

[narkeeso]

Thanks for the clarification! Totally makes sense. We're loving integrify in our workflow and have found some really cool uses for it.

[anishkny]

@narkeeso Thats great to hear. If possible, would love to see some real world applications of integrify (assuming its okay with your organization, of course) - perhaps in blog post form or something?