How can I properly set up Firebase authentication and security rules for Firestore queries in Angular?

Below is some advice on how to move forward:

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1. Firebase SDK Automatically Attaches Auth Tokens

When you use the Angular Firestore SDK along with Firebase Authentication, the SDK automatically attaches the Firebase Auth token with your requests. You don’t need to add headers yourself. The fact that your network inspector might not show those headers is normal because the SDK handles authentication behind the scenes.

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2. Check Your Firestore Security Rules

The error "Missing or insufficient permissions" usually indicates that your current security rules are not allowing the query. For example, if your rules only allow access when a document’s owner matches the currently authenticated user, you’ll need to verify that:

• Your Firestore rules correctly check the authentication status (i.e., using request.auth != null or a comparison against request.auth.uid or request.auth.token.email).
• If you’re filtering by ownerId (which in your code is set to user.email), your rules should compare to the token’s email (if you decide to do so). However, a more common approach is to use request.auth.uid as the identifier.

A simplified version of a secure rule might look like this:

FIRESTORECopied
service cloud.firestore {
  match /databases/{database}/documents {
    match /timeshares/{document} {
      // Example: only authenticated users can read, and only if the record owner matches the auth token email
      allow read: if request.auth != null &&
                  resource.data.ownerId == request.auth.token.email;
      // For writes you can do similar checks, or compare with request.auth.uid
    }
  }
}

If your rules currently don’t take the user's email or UID into account, your query might be rejected.

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3. Consider Using UID Instead of Email

While it’s okay to query by email, keep in mind:

• The Firebase Authentication token automatically provides a unique user ID (auth.uid).
• Using UID is more secure because emails can change and might be less predictable.
• If your document has an ownerId field storing the UID, then your rule would be:

FIRESTORECopied
service cloud.firestore {
  match /databases/{database}/documents {
    match /timeshares/{document} {
      allow read, write: if request.auth != null &&
                         resource.data.ownerId == request.auth.uid;
    }
  }
}

And your Angular code would query like:

TYPESCRIPTCopied
const ownerId = user.uid; // assuming you store the UID from your auth response
const timesharesCollection = collection(this.afs, 'timeshares');
const q = query(
  timesharesCollection,
  where('ownerId', '==', ownerId)
);
return collectionData(q, { idField: 'id' }) as Observable<Timeshare[]>;

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4. No Need to Manually Attach the Token

Since you’re already using AngularFirestore (hence the Firestore SDK) and Firebase Authentication, you don’t need to use your HTTP client to attach an Authorization header manually—the integration handles this. So you shouldn’t worry about setting headers on your query requests.

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In Summary

• SDK Management: Continue using the SDK. It automatically takes care of auth token transmission.
• Review Security Rules: Make sure your Firestore security rules allow access to the documents based on the attributes you choose (e.g., request.auth.uid or request.auth.token.email).
• Consider Best Practices: Use UID over email for owner identification to help improve security and ensure your queries match your security rules.

By ensuring your Firestore security rules are aligned with the data you store (and how you reference the current user), you should be able to resolve the “insufficient permissions” error.

If you need more details on setting up role-based or attribute-based rules, Firebase documentation has further examples and guidance.