Firebase write permission denied

Question

I can't figure out why firebase won't let me do this specific write. I feel like I do it the same in the simulator and it works there. Below are my security rules for this section.

"joinRequests" : {
  "$clanid": {
    "$requesterid" : {
      ".read" : "$requesterid === auth.uid || root.child('clans/' + $clanid + '/members/' + auth.uid + '/admin').val() === true",
      ".validate": "newData.hasChildren(['request'])",
      "request" : {
        ".write" : "true",
        ".validate": "newData.hasChildren(['name', 'message'])",
        "name" : {
        ".validate": "newData.isString()"
        },
        "message" : {
          ".validate": "newData.isString()"
        },
        "$other": {
        ".validate": false
        }
      },
      "approved" : {
        ".write" : "root.child('clans/' + $clanid + '/members/' + auth.uid + '/admin').val() === true || ($requesterid === auth.uid  && !newData.exists())",
        ".validate": "newData.isBoolean()"
      },
      "$other": {
      ".validate": false
      }
    }
  }
},

In the code for my android app I run these two lines:

dataSnapshot.child("request").getRef().removeValue();
dataSnapshot.child("approved").getRef().removeValue();

What I find weird is that it allows me to remove the "approved" value but not the "request" value. The dataSnapshot is a $requesterid. If I run this line in the simulator and it allows the write:

/joinRequests/QV28VJYG/c1cef959-2dd3-4cab-8649-2b81892cffa6/request

The error I get in android studio is this:

W/RepoOperation: setValue at /joinRequests/QV28VJYG/qRlJt4UIAcRVIe9VXoYVBa68tO43/request failed: DatabaseError: Permission denied

It must be something dumb that I'm doing but I can't imagine what it would be. Any help would be great, Thanks.

Answer 1

newData is a snapshot that represent how data will look like after the operation took place.

newData.hasChildren(['request']) tells firebase to make sure that the request node exists after the operation was executed. Therefore, deletion of this node is prohibited.