firebasebackend

name	FirebaseBackend
description	Overview of the Firebase project structure, Firestore collections, and authentication logic for the SCU Theta Tau website.

Firebase Backend Structure

This documentation provides an overview of how the Firebase backend is organized for the SCU Theta Tau website, including Firestore collections, schemas, authentication roles, and API interactions.

Firestore Collections

users & alumni

These collections now share a unified schema to ensure no data is lost when converting members between active and alumni states.

• Shared Fields:
  • email: User's primary email address (preserved in alumni state).
  • firstName, lastName: Member's full name.
  • class: Pledging class (e.g., "Alpha Alpha").
  • graduationYear: Year of graduation.
  • family: Associated family (e.g., "Filthy Fam", "Clout Fam").
  • major: Academic major.
  • role: Current or past leadership role.
  • points: Total points earned (preserved in alumni state).
  • profilePictureUrl: URL to the member's photo in Firebase Storage.
  • bigId: ID of the member's Big Brother (referenced from users or alumni).
  • linkedinUrl: Professional LinkedIn profile link.
  • dropped: Boolean indicating if the member dropped (defaults to false for active users).

admins

Used to sync user roles for Firestore security rules (keyed by email).

• Key Fields:
  • role: The user's role.
  • userId: The Firestore ID of the user in the users collection.

events

Stores information about point-earning activities.

• Key Fields:
  • id: Unique event ID.
  • name: Name of the event.
  • quarter: The quarter the event took place (e.g., "Spring 25").
  • date: ISO timestamp of the event.

eventPoints

A matrix mapping users to the points they earned for specific events (keyed by userId).

• Data Structure: { [eventId]: points }

quarterConfigs

Settings for how points are calculated for a given quarter (keyed by quarter name).

• Key Fields:
  • counts: Boolean indicating if points from this quarter should be included in the total.

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Authentication & Authorization

Permissions System

Permissions are managed in src/components/Admin/auth.js and are mapped to specific roles.

Role	Permissions
Webmaster	user-management, bro-dates, scribe-editor, spoon-assassins
Brotherhood Chair	bro-dates, spoon-assassins
Mediation Chair	bro-dates
Scribe	scribe-editor

Role Enforcement

• checkUserRole(navigate, requiredPermission): A utility function used in React components to protect routes.
• getUserPermissions(user): Fetches the current user's permissions based on their role in the users collection.

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API & Serverless Functions

The project uses Vercel serverless functions in the api/ directory to fetch data from Firestore.

• api/brothers.js: Fetches public information for all active brothers.
• api/leadership.js: Fetches executive board and other leadership information.
• api/_lib/firebaseAdmin.js: Standard initialization for firebase-admin to bypass client-side Firestore limitations.

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Firebase Storage

• Path: profilePictures/
• Naming Convention: ${timestamp}_${filename}
• Usage: Stores all member profile photos.