Specifying key with $add? - angularfire

Question

I would like to index customers in the data store using their email address as key, to enforce uniqueness.
I'm initialising my connection as follows:
var ref = new Firebase("https://[myApp].firebaseio.com/");
$scope.customers = $firebase(ref.child("customers")).$asArray();
And here's my controller:
function customerCtrl($scope) {
$scope.addNewMember = function (firstName, lastName, email) {
$scope.customers.$add({
firstName: firstName,
lastName: lastName,
email: email
});
}
}
Of course, this generates a unique key like -Jbd4KJ_CrFqlpnqbGVu. Is there a way to set the key manually instead, so that my data will look like this?
{
'bob.smith#example.com': {
firstName: 'Bob',
lastName: 'Smith'
},
'jane.doe#example.com': {
firstName: 'Jane',
lastName: 'Doe'
},
...
}
Or, am I thinking about this the wrong way?

Answer 1

You don't need a collection (to use $asArray) if you are working with a specific path with a key you already know. You'd probably be ahead to work directly with a Firebase reference in that case.
var ref = new Firebase("https://[myApp].firebaseio.com/");
$scope.customers = $firebase(ref.child("customers")).$asArray();
$scope.addNewMember = function(firstName, lastName, email) {
var escapedEmail = escapeEmailAddress(email);
ref.child('customers/'+escapedEmail).set({firstName: firstName, lastName: lastName, email: email});
};
function escapeEmailAddress(email) {
return (email||'').replace(/\./g, ',');
}
The data will automatically be synchronized into $scope.customers in real-time.
If you're set on doing this through the synchronized array, then manually declare the $id and use $save instead:
$scope.addNewMember = function (firstName, lastName, email) {
var rec = {
firstName: firstName,
lastName: lastName,
email: email,
$id: escapeEmailAddress(email)
};
$scope.customers.push(rec);
$scope.customers.$save(rec);
};