Does Firebase Crashlytics works even without Google Play Services (GPS)? If so, what's the difference between devices that has GPS and has not in terms of reporting?
Firebase Crashlytics doesn't require Google Play Services to provide information you are used to seeing in the dashboard. This differs from some other Firebase services so our official policy is to state Firebase as a whole requires Play, but several services work without it.
Related
Are all of the Firebase services for Android unable to work on Huawei or is it just the cloud messaging service that does not work? Do all of the firebase services rely on Google Play Services?
Firebase SDKs can be divided into three categories:
Play services required — These SDKs require Google Play services, otherwise they have no functionality.
Play services recommended — These SDKs require Google Play services to have full functionality, but they still offer most functionality even without Google Play services.
Play services not required — These SDKS do not require Google Play services to have full functionality.
List of Firebase SDKs that don't require Google Play services
List of Firebase SDKs that you need to include Google Play services
Remote Config SDK com.google.firebase:firebase-config:20.0.0 doesn't require Google Play Services.
Realtime Database SDK com.google.firebase:firebase-database:19.5.1 doesn't require Google Play Services.
But keep in mind that Realtime Database depends on Firebase Auth (it needs an authenticated user to work) which depends on Google Play Services. For that you can use Firebase Auth REST API instead of Firebase Auth SDK.
For more info Use Firebase Authentication without Google Play services
Update 27 Oct 2020:
Firebase Auth SDK v20.0.0 com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:20.0.0 doesn't require Google Play Service.
Official Dependencies of Firebase Android SDKs on Google Play services
The following Firebase products depend on Firebase Authentication.
Firebase Realtime Database
Cloud Firestore
Cloud Functions
Cloud Storage
You just need to replace Firebase Authentication with Firebase Auth REST SDK. Using this SDK, you don't need to change your existing Firebase Realtime Database code. It will start working on Huawei devices and also GMS devices as well.
Docs: Firebase Auth REST SDK - How to use Firebase Authentication on HMS phones
Firebase official stance is that all Firebase services require Google Play Services to work. Yes, some Firebase services actually work without GPS currently, however this can change at any time without prior notice.
Firebase services will not work on the new Huawei Phones.
For Huawei devices you can take a look to HMS and App Gallery Connect Services
Remote config: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/development/AppGallery-connect-Guides/agc-remoteconfig-introduction
Cloud DB: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/development/AppGallery-connect-Guides/clouddb-apply
Push Notifications: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/development/HMS-Guides/push-introduction
To make your app compatible with all devices, you can use the G+H solution:
https://forums.developer.huawei.com/forumPortal/en/topicview?tid=0201200435859940059&fid=0101187876626530001
My straight question is: since I am not interested in other Google Services, only Firestore, what is the difference between Firebase Cli and gcloud? Can I do all I need only with Firebase Cli or should I learn also gcloud?
I can easilly see that gcloud can handle more services than Firebase Cli. Also I can see Firebase Cli remenber me a lot the purpose of npm+ng cli when working with NodeJs/Angular (a simple analogy about scaffold/initialize/deploy). Nevertheless, our company will only use Firestore to take advantage of its Realtime Database pushing events to our mobile application.
I use Firebase Cli to type in my Windows command line and create a project in Firebase. I can see the result in Firebase Console and I also can see it in Console Cloud Plataform.
For me, who is total beginner with Google Cloud Plataform, it is a bit confused when prefer one over other. For instance, let's say I want to query data from Firebase Crashlytics from command line instead of logging from my Browser. Is it possible to use either Firebase Cli or gcloud? If both, which one is recommended for some company only interested in Firestore project?
This week I am struggling to figure out how to extract metrics regard my Firestore project and if I don't know what is the recommended tool for reach this task it make even harder to find the first steps. By extracting I don't mean see a beatifull dash in Google Console. I mean consume an endpoint providing me Firestore Metrics or, even better, subscribe my endpoint to Firestore project which will be called every time some issue happens (Other question asking exactly about getting Firestore metrics)
It is confusing and is partly the result of Google's acquisition of Firebase, the creation of what's now called Firestore (which is the unification of the original Firebase backend technology and Google Cloud Datastore), and that Google provides the Firestore service to both its Firebase and Google Cloud developer audiences.
As you've gathered, Google Cloud's CLI (Cloud SDK aka gcloud) and the Firebase CLI overlap in functionality. However, importantly:
both CLIs interact with a shared set of Google services (e.g. Firestore, identity, logging etc.).
there are some Google Cloud services not part of Firebase and vice versa
If you're focused on Firebase, you should be to able to stick with the Firebase CLI and continue to interact with Google's services through this Firebase lens.
If you include Google Cloud Platform services that aren't part of Firebase, you'll need to then consider using gcloud but importantly, you can either:
continue to use the Firebase CLI for the Firebase services;
use gcloud to interact with some (not all!) of the Firebase services (e.g. Firestore).
Over time, I assume (!) the remain discord between these 2 platforms will diminish.
If you consider both platforms as the result of (an ongoing?) unification since the acquisition, hopefully, these discrepancies will be more understandable and less frustrating.
Where you do find inconsistencies and frustrations, ensure Google knows by submitting feature requests and bugs.
I'm building a SAAS project on Firebase and weighing the pros and cons of multi-tenant architecture vs managed Firebase instances for each account.
One of the key challenges with managed instances is reporting usage. I've searched through Firebase docs but have not been able to find an API endpoint to fetch a Firebase project's account usage (eg bandwidth, function invocations, storage, etc).
Is there a API that I'm missing or is this alternatively possible with core Google Cloud APIs?
firebaser here
We just added a REST API to manage projects and the apps in those projects. But there is currently no way to report usage for a project across all Firebase products. It sounds like a useful feature through, so I recommend filing a feature request.
Until a feature is added that fits your needs, you will have to do the tracking from within your own app, or by proxying the tracked functionality through Cloud Functions, where you can then log whatever you need for tracking usage.
I want to test Firebase analytics to monitor my app but i'm a little concerned about the free mode. Am I obligated to use Firebase storage, real time database, hosting and all that? or can I have my own and use Firebase just for analytics?
What I fear is giving up my current infra structure and end up with the app turned off during release because it got too many access or something like that.
You can use Firebase Analytics without using any of the other Firebase features. Firebase Analytics is free and unlimited.
This is more a support question than a technical question. But if you set-up the Google cloud hosting and you want to use Firebase. Is the cost included, or do you have to pay separate for Firebase?
Since Google announced the new Firebase I'm curious if it is included in the package, or is it separate from Google cloud hosting and you can just add it?
Firebase is a different service than Google Cloud Platform(GCP).
Firebase offers different pricing models.
Firebase uses resources from GCP and its pricing are also calculated as per GCP pricing in its "BLAZE" plan (pay as you go).
Firebase Pricing
Firebase Storage uses Google Cloud Storage for storing images, videos and other large files.
Firebase now uses the same underlying account system as GCP, which means you can use any GCP product with your Firebase app. For example, you can export raw analytics data from the new Firebase Analytics to Google BigQuery to help you surface advanced insights about your application and users.
New Firebase is now integrated with GCP. So you will now be able to use many services provided by GCP in firebase via integration.
Firebase-and-Google-Cloud-better-together
So, if you think using firebase service plans are what fits for your product, its the way to go.