How to use GoogleDrive from Android app using FireBase Auth UI? - firebase

I have implemented Firebase Authentication in my app, using the Google Provider and the "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata" scope so my app can access its application folder within Google Drive
This part works fine and I retrieve the FireBaseUser once the authentication completes
What I now want to do is to access my app storage on Google Drive, but I don't know how to do this using the result of the current authentication
I tried to follow this: https://github.com/gsuitedevs/java-samples/blob/master/drive/quickstart/src/main/java/DriveQuickstart.java
But this doesn't work on Android.
The main issue is how to create the Credentials object
Do you have any idea on how to initialize a Drive.Builder instance so I can write/read to the app Google Drive folder?
Thanks

This cannot be done directly, because the Firebase & Google login are not the same, even when having logged in to Firebase with a Google account. On Android one meanwhile only has the "last logged in Google account" available for the user's Drive (the one on the device, which has nothing to do with Firebase Authentication, where Google may only be used as an "Authentication Provider").
So there are generally two options available to you:
Grant a GCP service-account access to Drive API and use Cloud Functions to access it.
Instead use Cloud Storage, which is within the Firebase eco-system and is similar to Drive.
I could also think of a combined solution approach, where users would use Cloud Storage (together with Firebase Authentication) and having a Cloud Function which uses a service-account, which eg. copies or moves uploaded files into a folder your Drive.
Concerning that (obviously server-side) Java example, the credentials.json clearly hints for a service account... and this is exactly where you can obtain this file from. However, for Android this is pretty useless - because it has major security implications, to package service-account credentials in an easy to de-compile package and distribute it on the WWW (to everybody). The Google Play Store likely would not permit you to publish or even upload that, because there are security checks in place. You could in best case only deploy that code as App Engine module, but not as an Android module.
Sorry for having destroyed your delusions and for not being able to provide a ready-made solution for 500 imaginary internet points, which pay nothing - but at least I can tell what is technically possible and what isn't - which effectively might save you lots of time, trying to accomplish the impossible.

Related

How to Fix Permission Issues in Firebase Cloud Functions (Nextjs Experimental Hosting)

I have an issue related to Firestore, Hosting, and Cloud functions. I deployed a Nextjs application using the just-released experimental web framework support. I'm using Nextjs's Image API, and as expected, the Firebase CLI creates a cloud function for the project. Everything works fine at the start, but when I try to open a page in the application that reads some data from Firestore, it redirects to an auth page, which is unexpected.
Even when I auth with my Google account (since that's the logged-in user to the application), it returns a forbidden error and logs me out.
When I go back and try again, it returns a different error (most likely because I was logged out automatically).
I tried doing some research, and some people suggested adding an allUsers principal permission to Cloud functions, but that didn't work (Error: Principals of type allUsers and allAuthenticatedUsers cannot be added to this resource), and that's even insecure permission. Only authenticated users should be able to read data from the page as already configured in my Firestore security rules. So it's unclear what I need to do since Firebase created the Cloud function automatically or if this is related to my security rules and cloud functions.
What could be wrong? Everything works fine in my existing deployment setup to Netlify (where Edge functions are created automatically using their Nextjs plugin). I'm only trying to test the new Firebase web framework hosting features. Please let me know if you'd need me to provide some more context or debug files to better help you help me.
Thank you!
The message “ App requesting permission to access your google account “ pops up if the function runs in any region other than us-central1.
Currently, Firebase Hosting does not support Cloud Functions in any other regions, Except us-central1.
You can refer to this StackOverflow thread.

How firebase Admin SDK differs from firebase console web page?

I'm developing an android app with firebase as a backend and I heard a word named Admin SDK. I had searched for it and found it is used to manage data.
But I have a doubt that firebase provides a console webpage (console.firebase.google.com) to manage data, but why there is a separate Admin SDK?
Can someOne please explain...
The firebase admin SDK provides a simple and easy way to modify firebase settings and data using API calls.
For example, you might ask: why should you even have a regular SDK to store data? After all, you can store and save data directly from the web interface. It is, however, simply not secure or practical to have users update their own data each time using the console.
Similarly, the admin SDK is just like the regular SDK but with administrator permissions. For example, it allows you to bypass the rules set up using your firestore rules. The Firebase admin SDK is meant to be used on your backend - so you know it is running trusted software. You know that it will act the way you expect it to, unlike code running client-side that can't be trusted.
For example, let's say that you want to be able to delete a user's post if certain conditions are met. The user will make the request to your server, and it will check if the conditions are met, and then delete the post using its admin privilages. Sure you could technically automate this using firestorm rules, but those can be quite cumbersome and might not work in more complicated examples.
You can also even use it to integrate with other applications like connecting your app to a moderation tool or a curse detector that can't or shouldn't run on the client's device.
Is your question is why does Admin SDK exists?
There are several administrative tasks such as deleting users, listing collections and many more which the client cannot and should not be able to do.
Firebase Admin SDK has admin access to your Firebase project's resources.
It does not obey any security rules and can read/write any of your database, storage bucket..
That is why you must use Admin SDK in a server (or cloud function only). Although I feel Firebase Admin SDK is more useful if you use your own servers and authentication method. If you are using a custom server then:
It can be used to generate custom token so you can authenticate users using your own method (maybe legacy auth system) but still use Firebase Authentication to handle the auth tokens thereafter.
If you use your own database (and not any from Firebase), the Admin SDK can verify the ID Token sent by client and get identity of that user. Thereafter it's could be a simple if-else statement for you to decide if the user has access to the request resource or not.

Unknown user in my firebase user authentication (Flutter/firebase)

I developed an app to test the google login feature using flutter and google authentication. The project is a closed project and only I have access to it. But recently I saw that there was a google sign in from an unknown Email ID. How did the user login without the build of my app? Has my account been hacked? What is going on?
Anyone with knowledge of your project's API Keys can access your Firebase Project using simple CURL Commands.
This is why it's a good idea to add restriction to those API Keys
In case you haven't, go to https://console.cloud.google.com and
Select your project
Click the menu icon at the top left (hamburger icon)
Go to API & Services and then credentials
You can view the APIs for your Google Cloud Project (linked to your Firebase Project) and then set restrictions for the API keys, refresh them or restrict access to specific platforms like Android or iOS.
You can also set restrictions on which components of Firebase the API key is allowed to access. For example, if your project doesn't require the use of Cloud Firestore, you can ensure that the API Key cannot be used to make calls to the Firestore Database
All said and done, I would still recommend that you shoot a mail to the Firebase Support team at https://firebase.google.com/support/troubleshooter/contact
To anyone still wondering about this:
If you provide a native google sign in and the registered
email adresses look like this:
karolynmccorkle.91842#gmail.com
normabrock.69306#gmail.com
guillermogeorge.53163#gmail.com
kylegomez.35423#gmail.com
opalbarrett.09499#gmail.com
they are probably test accounts used to generate Google Plays Pre-Launch reports.
You can read about it in the Play Console Help here.
If your app has a sign-in screen and you want the crawler to test the
sign-in process or the content behind it, you need to provide account
credentials.
Note that you do not need to provide credentials if your
app supports "Sign-in with Google,” which enables the crawler to log
in automatically.

Firebase console access configuration [duplicate]

I have a Firebase app, and I want to know if it's possible to restrict a Firebase Console user to access only to the "Authorizations" tab. (to CRUD users). The access must be by the Firebase (regular) Web Console
Especially, I don't want the user to see the database data via the web console. Is that possible? I've managed to give him access to the entire project, and he can do anything I can do (is an Admin).
I haven't found nothing about this in the docs / searching.
firebaser here
Collaborators on a project currently have access to the entire Firebase Console. You can limit to having read-only access, but you currently can't limit what panels they have access to.
We've heard the request before and know this would expand the usefulness of the Firebase Console. I recommend that your file a feature request, to add your vote.

Can Firebase Database be set up to host data for 3rd party client? (e.g., analytics service)

Is it possible to set up Firebase to allow Auth/DB access into a common/shared database instance - where that instance is setup to be a centralized storage location for some 3rd party service?
For example, let's say there's an analytics service called StackOverflowAnalytics.com .. and so anyone who signs up for that service, can add tracking to their app with some secret user key. And then all the tracking for that Key is pushed to the same Firebase DB instance. And then the user can login via Firebase auth and the rules will restrict that they can only access the node for their Key.
I'm working on a 3rd party analytics client for Android - along the lines https://mint.splunk.com - where I would like to provide users a small Java/Android library they can add to their Android project, and this will help them track different data points while their app is running. The data is made accessible by saving it to the cloud from the device.
I am currently using Firebase, but it seems in order for the Firebase Auth & DB of a given Firebase instance to be accessible - the "specific app signing key" (package name/etc combo) needs to be set in the console for that Firebase instance.
It seems sharing across across unknown apps is not possible on Firebase. And that if I want to support something like that with Firebase (and not have to go to another cloud storage option), then I need to set up some proxy REST client .. like in Java or PHP .. that can serve as a centralized access point to that Firebase instance. Just wanted to check with other folks first in case this has been encountered and perhaps there are best practices already established around this particular case. Thanks
Firebase client libraries are generally not meant to be repackaged for use in other libraries. They're meant to be used at the app level.
A unique SHA-1 key is required on Android for Authentication to work with a particular app identified by package name. This requirement will definitely become a problem for you if you want this to work with arbitrary apps, since you would have to manually enter one for each app that wants to integrate.
As far as I know it's not possible to do what you want without creating a proxy, as you mentioned. I assume that firebase has some app validation that make unfeasible to share the Auth/DB.
Maybe a solution for you is to make a proxy too to access data:
"It looks like in order to access Firebase Analytics data, you export it to BigQuery. This is working for me and is automated."

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