Firebase Database not loading data offline

Question

I have an app that uses Firebase Database in offline mode (by calling FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().setPersistenceEnabled(true)). In the database there is a node that user can access only if value in other node is set to true, the rules look like this:

{
  "rules": {
    ".write": "auth != null",
    ".read": "false",
    "mynode": {
      "$dataId": {
        ".read": "auth != null && root.child('userAccessNode/' + auth.uid + '/' + $dataId).val() == true"
      }
    }
  }
}

It works correctly when device is connected to internet. However when I turn flight mode on the device the callback addValueEventListener(ValueEventListener) doesn't return anything - nor error, not value, just hangs until I turn on internet connection again.

I made sure that both nodes were retrieved before going offline, so I was sure the node in question and node holding access information was cached.

For other nodes that have simple rules like (auth != null) offline mode works fine, but not in this case.

Am I doing anything wrong? Any idea how can I make this work? How does rules (that depend on other nodes) evaluation work when offline?

Answer 1

Firebase Realtime Database security rules are always evaluated on the server side. This prevents malicious clients from bypassing those rules.