INTRODUCTION TO FIREBASE

Mustafa ŞENELmustafa.senel@sony.comSoftware Developer @ SONY GSI

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AGENDA What is Firebase ? Use Case Realtime Database Data Modeling Security Rules Pricing Conclusion

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WHAT IS FIREBASE?

«Firebase is a mobile and web application platform with tools and infrastructure designed to help developers build high-quality

apps»*

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebase

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WHAT IS FIREBASE?

A set of tools which provides a full suite for app development Ability to create applications with no server-side programming Backend as a Service

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HISTORY

Founded in 2011 by Andrew Lee and James Tamplin Initial product was a realtime database Over time it becomes a full suite for app development Acquired by Google in 2014

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WHAT IS FIREBASE?

*https://firebase.google.com/

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USE CASE – MOBILE APPUsually our architecture

DatabaseServer / REST APIDevices

*Icons made by Madebyoliver from www.flaticon.com

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USE CASE – MOBILE APP

*Icons made by Madebyoliver from www.flaticon.com

Access via REST or SDK

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FIREBASE REALTIME DATABASE

Initial product and the heart of the Firebase platform After a database update, new data is synchronized across all clients within milliseconds NoSQL Json Database

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FIREBASE REST

Firebase can be used as REST endpoint (append .json to the URL) Usage of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) as usual Provides a set of Query parameters

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FIREBASE SDK

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SDK - READ DATA (ON – METHOD)

Event based query system Provides different event types Listens for data changes at a particular location Callback triggered for the initial data and whenever the data changes

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SDK - READ EXAMPLES

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SDK - READ DATA (OTHER METHODS)

’’once’’ Method Access like ’’on’’ method – but just one callback and not keep giving updates

’’off’’ Method Detaches a callback previously attached with ’’on’’ method

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SDK – WRITE DATA (PUSH METHOD)

Most common pattern for adding data Generates a new child location and returns its Reference Uses a unique key based on current time Because of the unique key, data is chronologically inserted

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SDK - WRITE DATA (OTHER METHODS)

’’set’’ Method Overwrites any data at given location and all child locations

’’update’’ Method Used to selectively update only the referenced properties at the given location

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SDK - WRITE EXAMPLES

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SDK - WORKING OFFLINE

Offline read and write data possible There are two offline modes Short term

Local in-memory cache Long term

Disk persistence Works on Android and IOS

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USE CASE

We are going to build a mobile application We have entities like User, Channel, Follower, ...

One user can have many channels Each channel only belongs to one user

One channel can have many followers Each follower can follow many channels

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DATA MODELING - NESTED NODES

Might be exactly what we need When we need channels always with full follower information

But Firebase is always loading all json There is no way to exclude properties

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DATA MODELING - THE ELEGANT WAY

Add indexes to resolve two-way relationships Association properties of the relationship could be saved as the value of this node

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DATA MODELING

Keep in mind – It’s a JSON tree Avoid nesting data Flatten data structures Create data that scales

* https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/web/structure-data

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SECURITY RULES

Default rules are too open Access to everything even if signing in anonymously

Mindfully data modeling is essential for real life rules Important rule types .read .write .validate .indexOn

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SECURITY RULES - EXAMPLE

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PRICING

*https://firebase.google.com/pricing/ December, 2016

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SOME FIREBASE CUSTOMERS

* https://firebase.google.com/customers

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ALTERNATIVES

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IN CONCLUSION

Get fast in action Easy to use But sometimes we just need server-side code It is hosted Data needs to be well structured

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LINKS

https://gist.github.com/msenel/8b01bfca1490a490e2cc06a3bcb865ee#file-senel-bbs-firebase-read-js

https://gist.github.com/msenel/5e4179b2e78c20968b7102b2bc95f645#file-senel-bbs-firebase-write-js

https://firebase.google.com/docs/ https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/web/structure-data https://www.youtube.com/user/Firebase

THANK YOU!