How to Add New Fields in a Firebase Collection Document Using Flutter with Cloud Firestore

Discover a solution to the issue of adding new fields in Firebase Collection documents with Flutter and learn how to avoid errors related to missing data fields in your Cloud Firestore collections.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/76156425/ asked by the user 'Juan Casas' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/17281101/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/76157197/ provided by the user 'Jirayu Janlert' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/21762397/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Fixing Firebase Document Field Issues in Flutter

When working with Firebase Cloud Firestore and Flutter, developers often face challenges when adding new fields to document collections, especially if some documents do not contain all fields. A common error encountered during this process is:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This error arises when attempting to access a field that does not exist in a document. In this guide, we will delve into the problem and provide a clear solution to effectively manage new fields in your Firebase collection document, while preventing errors due to missing fields.

Understanding the Problem

In the provided code, a class CloudPlace is defined, which represents a document in a Firebase collection. The class attempts to retrieve a field named is_place_rated, which may not be present in all documents. This discrepancy results in a runtime error when the field is not found, as the code tries to cast a null value into a bool.

The Original Code

Here's a simplified version of the class causing the issue:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Implementing a Solution

The Proposed Fix

To avoid errors caused by missing fields, we need to check if the field exists before attempting to access it. This can be done by modifying the field assignment as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Checking for Existence:

We first check if the field is_place_rated exists in the document's data using contains().

Safely Retrieving the Value:

If the field does exist, we retrieve its value. If it does not, we assign it a default value of false.

Updated CloudPlace Class

With the proposed change implemented, the CloudPlace class will look like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

By adding a simple check for the existence of fields before accessing them, you can efficiently manage new fields in your Firebase documents within Flutter applications. This approach not only mitigates errors but also enhances the robustness of your application.

Implementing these strategies ensures smoother development, leading to a better experience for both developers and users alike.



Feel free to explore more about Flutter with Firebase, and happy coding!