Pagination

It would be awesome to have pagination. For large data sets it is necessary.

@sammy-SC

@sammy-SC yep, we're investigating the best way to do this (we'd really like a count aggregation function in the client first), as FirebaseUtil does it but not in an ideal way.

I think this was planned originally for right after authentication, as we'll need to add another array and some properties for tracking which items exist where.

Any updates on this? Also what would define a "large collection" - at what point does performance degrade due to a lack of paging?

We're still working on other features. Pull-requests are always welcome.

Any news about this feature?

No, though I'm planning a refactor of the underlying data structure at some point and might get around to adding new features.

@mcdonamp

I see this as a huge limitation Firebase has. Seriously, this is making it useless for virtually any app with a longer list.
@mcdonamp @jhnferraris @kermankohli @sammy-SC @puf
I am new to Firebase and have very little time for this, but how about having a live session and put it together? I am available in CET working hours.

EDIT: feel free to ping me on skype: Haunebu512

@timominous

Hello,

We've tried doing our own pagination for Firebase. We've tried @timominous approach. See here (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37430881/swift-ios-firebase-paging). Maybe this can help kick off the solution of the pagination problem.

Do you got it working correctly? Could you perhaps share the whole paginating solution with the rest of us?

@kutakmir

@kutakmir

Yes. We just followed the sample usage in the attached SO link.

var count = numberOfItemsPerPage

var query ref.queryOrderedByKey()

if startKey != nil {
  query = query.queryStartingAtValue(startKey)
  count += 1
}

query.queryLimitedToFirst(UInt(count)).observeSingleEventOfType(.Value, withBlock: { snapshot in
  guard var children = snapshot.children.allObjects as? [FIRDataSnapshot] else {
    // Handle error
    return
  }

  if startKey != nil && !children.isEmpty {
    children.removeFirst()
  }

  // Do something with children
})

The solution might depend on how the scrollable list would work but I think the same logic applies. Here's the pseudocode that we used:

If startKey is null, then it is page 1.
Somewhere in your model, save the key of the last of object of page 1 and set that to "startKey"
Use the value of startKey to get page 2, remove the first child since it will now be a duplicate with the last value of page 1.

How about the newly created, edited and removed items in the paginated list?

I strongly recommend folks look at the FirebaseUtil Paginate API, as it has properly implemented all the child_* methods, and has a number of other useful features. Porting this over to iOS and Android is something that we'd love, and is something we think the community would benefit from--as Puf said, PR's are always welcome :)

@kutakmir

@kutakmir Unfortunately, the logic provided in the SO link doesn't have listeners for events.

@mcdonamp I found this (googlearchive/firebase-util#51) and would like to think the team is already working on it. :) I would have to re-study JS if I'd have some time to port it over.

@timominous

@timominous that is in reference to this issue (though it wasn't exposed at the time), so just stay tuned to this thread for the latest :)

@mcdonamp

@mcdonamp thank you for your quick reply. You are saying that this support is never likely to be added but issue #17 in android and issue #9 in iOS are still set as open as you can tell. How come we have not been informed about this in those threads? Now, this means that we are expected to move everything to Firestore? Given that Firestore is still in beta mode??

Let me clarify. It's highly unlikely that anyone from the Firebase team will add support for this in the existing Realtime Database, given that it's 1) inefficient (done client side), and 2) we're putting more effort into Firestore (which does it more efficiently, server side).

FirebaseUI is an open source project, which means anyone can contribute this feature if they'd like (and ideally, do so on both platforms), hence issues being kept open. Happy to close these and let the community re-open (or submit a PR) if that would make folks happier.

@mcdonamp

@mcdonamp How about the fact that Firestore is still in beta mode and more expensive than realtime database (Document writes Document reads Document deletes)?

@morganchen12

There are several threads on related topics on Google Cloud Firestore Discuss, so I'd voice concerns there.

@morganchen12 (iOS), @samtstern (Android), and I are happy to review PRs for this feature, but again, it's unlikely we'll be able to contribute significant implementation.

@mcdonamp

If anyone reading this wants to send a PR, as @mcdonamp said, that's great but please outline your design in an issue first. This is a really really tricky issue to get right (@morganchen12, @puf and me have all made some attempt) and I wouldn't want anyone to waste their time coding before knowing if they were heading in the right direction.

Any news guys? It's 2020 now 😆

Time is running faster.. now we are in 2022 and after reading this i am a bit disappointed because i must write my own soloution :)

Hello, to help manage issues we automatically close stale issues.

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity for quite some time. If it is still relevant, leave a comment to keep it open.

This issue will be closed in 15 days if no further activity occurs.

Thank you for your contributions.

Given this has been open for 11 years and no PR has been opened to address it, I'm going to close it out. If someone wants to open a PR, they're more than welcome, I'm happy to review it.

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Pagination #9

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asciimike commented on Sep 20, 2015

kermankohli commented on Nov 1, 2015

puf commented on Nov 1, 2015

jhnferraris commented on May 25, 2016

asciimike commented on May 26, 2016

kutakmir commented on Jun 19, 2016

jhnferraris commented on Jun 19, 2016

kutakmir commented on Jun 20, 2016

jhnferraris commented on Jun 20, 2016

kutakmir commented on Jun 20, 2016

asciimike commented on Jun 20, 2016

timominous commented on Jun 23, 2016

asciimike commented on Jun 23, 2016

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svidata commented on Feb 13, 2018

asciimike commented on Feb 13, 2018

svidata commented on Feb 13, 2018

asciimike commented on Feb 13, 2018

samtstern commented on Feb 13, 2018

tillchen commented on Jan 7, 2020

cosmopolit commented on Feb 16, 2022

github-actions commented on Jul 8, 2026

russellwheatley commented on Aug 3, 2026

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