Make realtime database concurrency-safe using mutex-style locking

src/app/FirebaseResource.ts

@@ -65,24 +65,34 @@ export class FirebaseResource<T extends FirebaseResourceItem> extends Iterable<T
         })
     }
 
+    findNextId(collection: FirebaseResourceItem[]) {
+        if ( !collection.length ) return 0
+        return collect<FirebaseResourceItem>(collection).max<number>('seqID') + 1
+    }
+
     /**
      * Push a new item into the collection.
      * @param item
      */
     async push(item: T): Promise<T> {
-        item.seqID = await this.getNextID()
+        await this.ref().transaction((collection) => {
+            if ( !collection ) collection = []
+            item.seqID = this.findNextId(collection)
+
             // @ts-ignore
             delete item.firebaseID
-        await this.ref().push(item)
+            collection.push(item)
 
-        // Look up the firebaseID
-        await new Promise<void>((res, rej) => {
-            this.ref().orderByChild('seqID')
-                .limitToLast(1)
+            return collection
+        })
+
+        await new Promise<void>(res => {
+            this.ref()
+                .orderByChild('seqID')
+                .startAt(item.seqID)
+                .limitToFirst(1)
                 .on('value', snapshot => {
-                    if ( snapshot.val() ) {
-                        item.firebaseID = Object.keys(snapshot.val())[0]
-                    }
+                    console.log('got push ID back', snapshot.val(), snapshot.key)
                     res()
                 })
         })

src/app/configs/app.config.ts

@@ -31,9 +31,11 @@ export default {
             // Mapping of ref-shortname to actual database reference
             // If you add a value here, also add it to the RTDBRef type alias
             refs: {
-                peers: 'chain/server/peers',
-                transaction: 'chain/pending/transactions',
-                block: 'chain/local/block',
+                locks: 'server/locks',  // Mutex-style locks for database refs
+                peers: 'server/peers',  // Collection of federated peers
+                transaction: 'chain/pending/transactions',  // List of pending encounter transactions
+                exposure: 'chain/pending/exposures',  // List of pending exposure notifications
+                block: 'chain/block',  // The blockchain itself
             },
         },
     }

src/app/units/FirebaseUnit.ts

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { Singleton, Inject } from "@extollo/di"
 import { Unit, Logging, Config } from "@extollo/lib"
 import * as firebase from "firebase-admin"
 
-export type RTDBRef = 'peers' | 'transaction' | 'block'
+export type RTDBRef = 'peers' | 'transaction' | 'block' | 'exposure' | 'locks'
 
 /**
  * FirebaseUnit Unit
@@ -19,16 +19,66 @@ export class FirebaseUnit extends Unit {
     @Inject()
     protected readonly config!: Config
 
+    /** Get the underlying Firebase library. */
     get() {
         return this._firebase
     }
 
+    /** Get a realtime-database Reference using our internal aliases. */
     ref(name: RTDBRef): firebase.database.Reference {
         return this._firebase.database().ref(
             String(this.config.get(`app.firebase.rtdb.refs.${name}`))
         )
     }
 
+    /** Get the realtime database object directly. */
+    db(): firebase.database.Database {
+        return this._firebase.database()
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Try to lock the given database ref alias.
+     * Promise will sleep if lock is held, and will resolve once lock is acquired.
+     * @param name
+     */
+    async trylock(name: RTDBRef): Promise<any> {
+        return this._firebase.database()
+            .ref(`${this.config.get('app.firebase.rtdb.refs.locks')}/${name}`)
+            .transaction(current => {
+                if ( !current || current.time < 1 ) {
+                    return {
+                        time: (new Date).getTime(),
+                    }
+                }
+            }, undefined, false).then(async result => {
+                if ( result.committed ) {
+                    this.logging.debug(`Lock acquired: ${name}`)
+                    return Promise.resolve()
+                }
+
+                this.logging.debug(`Unable to acquire lock: ${name}. Trying again soon...`)
+                await this.sleep(500)
+                return this.trylock(name)
+            })
+            .catch(async reason => {
+                this.logging.debug(`Unable to acquire lock: ${name}. Trying again soon...`)
+                await this.sleep(500)
+                return this.trylock(name)
+            })
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Release the lock on the given database ref.
+     * @param name
+     */
+    async unlock(name: RTDBRef) {
+        await this._firebase.database()
+            .ref(`${this.config.get('app.firebase.rtdb.refs.locks')}/${name}`)
+            .set({time: 0}, err => {
+                if ( err ) this.logging.error(err)
+            })
+    }
+
     /** Called on app start. */
     public async up() {
         this.logging.info('Initializing Firebase application credentials...')
@@ -42,4 +92,11 @@ export class FirebaseUnit extends Unit {
     public async down() {
 
     }
+
+    /** Sleep for (roughly) the given number of milliseconds. */
+    async sleep(ms: number) {
+        await new Promise<void>(res => {
+            setTimeout(res, ms)
+        })
+    }
 }

src/app/units/rtdb/Transaction.ts

@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ export class Transaction extends Unit {
         this.firebase.ref("transaction").on("child_added", async () => {
             this.logging.debug('Received child_added event for transactions reference.')
             if ( !this.claim() ) return
+            await this.firebase.trylock('block')
 
             // array of pairs of transaction resource items
             let groupedTransactions: [TransactionResourceItem, TransactionResourceItem][] = []
@@ -121,6 +122,7 @@ export class Transaction extends Unit {
             }
 
             this.release()
+            await this.firebase.unlock('block')
         })
     }