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.
Related
It is possible to use Google Identity Platform and Firebase Auth concurrently in the same project without upgrading my email/password users in Firebase Auth to Google Identity Platform and having to pay for those users?
Attempting to use Google Identity Platform seems to force me to move all my users in Firebase Auth over to it.
As far as I know it is indeed not possible to use Google Cloud's Identity Platform and Firebase Authentication on a single project. You'll have to pick one, and use that for the entire project.
The only alternative I can think of is setting up separate projects for each, and accessing the specific project for the type of user. But in that scenario you'll have to deal with data migration and probably more nasty situations.
Update: since June 2022 the upgrade to Identity Platform is available directly within Firebase. While this optional upgrade does switch you to a different pricing plan which is no longer unlimited, it comes with a generous free tier of 50,000 MAU (monthly active users).
For more on this see the announcement blog post MFA, Blocking functions, and more come to Firebase Authentication and the documentation section on Firebase Authentication with Identity Platform.
I have to build an API using Firebase, and need some help with design choices. I want to be able to sell the API to users, who can then use it to build/integrate their own applications. Users will have both read and write privileges.
General information:
I'm using Firestore db with email & password authentication.
Only specifically assigned users may use the API
Each user may only access specific documents concerning them.
I've noticed 3 different ways in which an API can be provided to a user of my Firestore db:
https triggered cloud functions (https://firebase.google.com/docs/functions/http-events)
Using the SDK (https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/client/libraries)
Using the REST API provided by Firbase (https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/use-rest-api)
API requirements:
Used only by users that I specifically grant access to (email & password login)
I want to limit these users to only a couple of read/write tasks that they're able to perform.
It needs to be safe.
My current approach is:
Use the 3rd option - the REST API provided by Firebase (thereby giving users the projectId and API key)
Add authorised users to the list of authorised accounts on Firbase, and limit access using custom claims and database rules.
My questions:
It seems that https functions (option 1) are normally used in API building. Are options 2 and 3 unsafe?
What are the normal use cases of the 3 options? When should each be used and when should each be avoided?
Are there any obvious flaws in my choice of option 3?
Any other useful information about making these design decisions will be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance
TL;DL: It depends on what you want to do with this API and how many and what type of devices/users will be calling it.
Before answering your questions I will list below the advantages of each approach:
Cloud Functions:
Cloud Function is a Functions as a Service Solution, so it's also a hosting service for your API, therefore you won't have to provision, manage, or upgrade servers and the API will automatically scale based on the load. Also this option takes into account the pros of SDKs and client libraries, since your code will have to use it to connect to Firestore anyway.
SDKs and client libraries:
This is the easiest and more optimized way to reach Firestore, however, environments where running a native library is not possible such as IOT devices will be left out of your solution, so consider this while implementing this option.
Cloud Firestore REST API:
Every device properly authorized to access Firestore will be able to do so.
NOTE: For both SDK and REST API you will need to consider hosting of your API, either on Cloud Functions, as mentioned, App Engine Standard, App Engine Flex or a Compute Engine Server Instance.
All that being said, it's up to you and your API's usage and requirements to say which option is best considering the points above.
As per security, I'd say that all option can be secure if firebase rules and firebase auth are set correctly.
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.
In Google Firebase pricing (https://firebase.google.com/pricing/) table states:
The Spark plan only allows outbound network requests to Google-owned
services.
Does it mean that JS function in web browser (client) page can't call Firebase function and retrieve data in FREE TIER?
firebaser here
Good catch, that piece of documentation probably should be clarified.
Inbound requests are allowed, as long as you're within your allowed quota. So your app can call a Cloud Function.
Outbound requests for projects on the free plan are only allowed to Google-owned services. So your Cloud Function code can only call google owned web APIs, unless it's on a paid plan.
Update: the above applies up to Node.js runtimes up to v8. From Node.js 10 and upwards your Firebase project needs to be on a paid plan to be able to use Cloud Functions. For full details on this, see the Firebase FAQ on Cloud Functions pricing.
At lowest possible costs (USD 11.53) it is better to have Blaze plan and use REST calls to Firebase functions freely:
no, they do not talk about JavaScript Functions, they talk about serverless computing functions
https://firebase.google.com/features/functions/
theses functions can make only make http calls to Google Services and e.g. not to Yahoo or Amazon services
I am looking to make an app that would have its Backend on another service like AWS or some other. This app would be having many features and functionalities.
But for chat feature, I am exploring options and wondering that would I be able to integrate Firebase in my app.
I have read about Firebase Functions to add more functionality at the backend and also the installation of Firebase Admin to servers.
But still I am not convinced about their capabilities and exactly what all I can do with them.
It would be great if someone who has experience with Firebase help me out figuring if going with it is the best case for me or is there something else I should look into.
So first you can't use Firebase in combination with AWS or Azure etc. Firebase is based on Google Cloud and is the interface between the mobile client (the running app on the client's smartphone) and the backend (your Firebase project).
What I use is, for example, Firebase Cloud Messaging, to simply notify one or multiple users by trigger an HTTP Request from my own web server.
I also made some apps to store the data in FireStore or in the Realtime-Database, so that I don't have to set up a whole new infrastructure. And this is basically the goal of Firebase that you can simply start with your app, without carrying about that.
So what I've heard about Firebase is that you currently cannot install Firebase on a server of your choice and you have to use Google Cloud.
Hopefully, you can do something with my answer. If you have further questions feel free to ask them.