I'm new to flutter and I'm working on a project where I need to retrieve data from two different firebase firestores (web and flutter) and show them in different places in my app so I'm wondering if I could do it due to web firebase has been made for a separate web project.
If I correctly understand, you can use two different instances of a Firestore Database, as explained in the cloud_firestore package documentation:
You can get an instance by calling FirebaseFirestore.instance. The
instance can also be created with a secondary Firebase app by calling
FirebaseFirestore.instanceFor.
FirebaseApp secondaryApp = Firebase.app('SecondaryApp');
FirebaseFirestore firestore = FirebaseFirestore.instanceFor(app: secondaryApp);
Related
When initializing Firebase in Nodejs project, why we include apikey,databaseurl,storageBucket,authDomain, appId, messagingSenderId, projectId in Firebase.initializeApp()? Without some of these properties, it is still working, then why do we need to pass it?
And also for security, we use Firebase Authentication for checking user auth.uid, so why do we need to pass the above properties in initializeApp()?
Does passing these properties, Firebase will check it by default? If Firebase checks it by default, we don't need Firebase Authentication then?
I'm a beginner kindly help.
Firebase consists of >18 products these days, and many of them take different configuration data at startup. But since you only call initializeApp once for all these products, you have to pass the configuration data for all products in this one call.
That's why all example in the Firebase documentation and console show how to pass all possible configuration data. Depending on the products you actually use, and the platform you run on, you may need fewer of these values, but including all of them never causes problems.
When you register an app with a Firebase project, the Firebase console provides a Firebase configuration file (Apple/Android apps) or a configuration object (web apps) that you add directly to your local app directory.
That is, a Firebase config file / object associates an app with a specific Firebase project and its resources. It consists of unique and non-secret identifiers for your project. A Firebase config file generally consists of apiKey, databaseURL, projectId, storageBucket, messagingSenderId, appId, measurementId.
These parameters are required by Firebase and Google services to communicate with Firebase server APIs and to associate client data with the Firebase project and Firebase app. The apiKey and the projectId are the mandatory fields in the configuration file/object. And, other fields are optional. Each of the other fields corresponds to an optional part of Firebase.
This is because Firebase contains many services/products such as realtime nosql database services, blob storage, push notifications/messaging, and ofcourse Authentication among many more things.
If you do not desire to use the other parts of Firebase, simply do not reference them nor enable them. It is completely fine to only use Firebase Authentication.
The content of the Firebase config file or object is considered public, including the app's platform-specific ID (Apple bundle ID or Android package name) and the Firebase project-specific values, like the API Key, project ID, Realtime Database URL, and Cloud Storage bucket name. Given this, it is recommended to use Firebase Security Rules to protect your data and files in Realtime Database, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Storage.
I have a flutter app, I previously deployed, which I added firebase even though I didn't use their database. Now, I have another project that does not use firebase. My question is:
Is it a must to use firebase when deploying a flutter app even though I am using firebase in my code?
There is no (explicit or implicit) requirement to use Firebase for your Flutter app. And even when you use Firebase, you don't have to use all of its (18 or so) products.
You can use parts of Firebase that you like, and use alternative products that you prefer for other parts.
For example, it is quite common for (Flutter) web apps to use Firebase Authentication to sign users in, and then use one of the databases in Firebase (Firestore or Realtime Database) to store data, but then deploy the web app to a non-Firebase hosting provider.
It's also quite common for (Flutter) web apps to use Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver push notifications and background data messages, but no other parts of Firebase.
Firebase is great, it helps in so many ways, and well-integrated with crashalytics, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, you name it.
We are building a mobile SDK, however, it seems that you can only link to Firebase on the app level (you can't initialise your own SDK to send to a different account than App's Firebase account).
Is there a workaround to allow me as an SDK developer to collect events, crash reports,.... to a Firebase account related to the SDK alone, regardless to the app that is using the SDK?
Many thanks
You can initialize more than one instance of the SDK at once. However, you should make consumers of your SDK aware that it is doing so and they should have a clear way to opt-out.
When an application is launched, the FirebaseInitProvider will handle initialization of the default application instance. This default app instance has a name of "[DEFAULT]".
If you wanted to have a second user logged in, make use of a separate project, make use of a secondary database, and so on - you can just initialize another application instance. Importantly (taken from the docs), any FirebaseApp initialization must occur only in the main process of the app. Use of Firebase in processes other than the main process is not supported and will likely cause problems related to resource contention.
This is done using FirebaseApp.initializeApp() like so:
FirebaseApp nameApp = FirebaseApp.initializeApp(context, config, "name");
To replicate the default instance so you can have more than one user logged in, you can use:
FirebaseApp defaultApp = FirebaseApp.getInstance();
FirebaseApp secondaryApp = FirebaseApp.initializeApp(
defaultApp.getApplicationContext(),
defaultApp.getOptions(),
"secondary"
);
To use a separate instance entirely, you load your configuration into a FirebaseOptions object using:
FirebaseOptions sdkAppOptions = new FirebaseOptions.Builder()
.setApiKey(sdkApiKey)
.setApplicationId(sdkAppId)
.setDatabaseUrl(sdkDatabaseUrl)
.setGcmSenderId(sdkGcmSenderId)
.setProjectId(sdkProjectId)
.setStorageBucket(sdkStorageBucket)
.build();
FirebaseApp sdkApp = FirebaseApp.initializeApp(
sdkContext,
sdkAppOptions,
"com-example-mysdkproject" // <- use namespace as best practice
);
Once you have an instance of FirebaseApp, you can then pass it through to other the other services using:
FirebaseAuth sdkAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance(sdkApp);
// or
FirebaseApp sdkApp = FirebaseApp.getInstance("com-example-mysdkproject");
FirebaseAuth sdkAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance();
I managed to move data between projects using the instructions as per this guide: Moving data between projects.
During the import, I got an error:
ERROR: (gcloud.firestore.import) PERMISSION_DENIED: The Cloud Firestore API has not been used in project XXX before or it is disabled. Enable it by visiting https://console.developers.google.com/apis/api/firestore.googleapis.com/overview?project=project-name and then retry. If you enabled this API recently, wait a few minutes for the action to propagate to our systems and retry.
I enabled Cloud Firestore API and completed the import process.
Now, on Firebase console, when I go the Cloud Firestore page of the destination project, I see this message:
This project is set up to use Cloud Firestore in Datastore mode. This mode can only be accessed from Google Cloud Platform
The import command creates the Cloud Firestore database in Datastore mode. And it's not possible to switch it back Native mode as the first write on the database executed.
How can I import the data in Cloud Firestore Native mode?
I understand the import operation coerced the type of the new project database to Firestore in Datastore mode instead of Firestore Native, which was the mode of the database you exported the data from.
I have opened the following issue tracker so that this behavior could be investigated in further detail. I would recommend to star the issue and add your mail in the CC list so that you're aware of the updates made therein.
Separately, once the first write has been commited to the database it's no longer possible to change the database mode, therefore you'll have to create another project to use Firestore in Native mode.
To that effect I have tested the following workaround so that you could succesfully make the import in a new project:
Create a new project. Then go to the Firebase Console and create a Firestore database.
Using the console, create a mock collection and a mock document within it.
Proceed with the import as outlined in the documentation.
After completing these steps you could delete the mock collection and keep with your development as usual.
I'm familiar with using Cloud Firestore when created through Firebase, but I've created a Cloud Firestore as a service within Cloud Platform and I can't figure out how to have a client access that database. I was expecting there would be someway to generate a GoogleService-Info.plist so that my iOS app can access Firestore.
How is Cloud Firestore different when created from GCP, and how can clients access it?
If you want to access Firestore from iOS, you will still have to go through the Firebase console to add your app to the project and generate that plist file.
What you probably don't realize is that a Firebase project is just like a GCP project. Every Firebase project IS a GCP project, just pre-configured with some services and APIs enabled. Read this blog for a full discussion. If you created your project via the Cloud console, you can just as easily access the very same project from the Firebase console.
Your Firstore instance is 100% the same, no matter how you access it. All the same data and scaling behavior that you expect from Firestore. The only differences lie in how Firebase client apps add special mobile functionality. Read this blog for a full discussion specific to Firestore.
Bottom line is that, for use with mobile apps, you should still use the Firebase console to set that up. You can use both console together at the same time. They show almost entirely the same data, but Firebase is simplified for mobile-centric use.