Firebase

Neil Haddley • April 24, 2023

Firebase web codelab

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The application I built uses these Firebase products for web apps:

Firebase Authentication to easily allow your users to sign into your app.

Cloud Firestore to save structured data on the cloud and get instant notification when data changes.

Cloud Storage for Firebase to save files in the cloud.

Firebase Hosting to host and serve your assets.

Firebase Cloud Messaging to send push notifications and display browser popup notifications; and

Firebase Performance Monitoring to collect user performance data for your app.

Instructions are available:

https://firebase.google.com/codelabs/firebase-web

I started by cloning the codelab-friendlychat-web repository

BASH
1% git clone https://github.com/firebase/codelab-friendlychat-web
I cloned codelab-friendlychat-web

I cloned codelab-friendlychat-web

I opened the project in Visual Studio Code

I opened the project in Visual Studio Code

I created a Firebase project

https://console.firebase.google.com

I provided a name for the project

I provided a name for the project

I disabled google analytics for this project

I disabled google analytics for this project

I waited

I waited

The new project was ready

The new project was ready

I reviewed the FriendlyChat project

I reviewed the FriendlyChat project

I noted that the Project ID was friendlychat-2ee95

I noted that the Project ID was friendlychat-2ee95

Add a web app

I added a Firebase web app to the Firebase project

I selected Web

I selected Web

I registered the app

I registered the app

I reviewed the Add Firebase SDK instructions

I reviewed the Add Firebase SDK instructions

I copied this object

I copied this object

I pasted the object here

I pasted the object here

The Friendly Chat web app was created

The Friendly Chat web app was created

Enable Google sign-in for Firebase Authentication

To allow users to sign in to the web app with their Google accounts, I selected the Google sign-in method

I selected the Google provider

I selected the Google provider

I enabled Google Authentication

I enabled Google Authentication

The provider was enabled

The provider was enabled

Enable Cloud Firestore

The web app uses Cloud Firestore to save chat messages and receive new chat messages.

I selected Start in test mode

I selected Start in test mode

I selected location and clicked the Enable button

I selected location and clicked the Enable button

The Firestore database was created

The Firestore database was created

Enable Cloud Storage

The web app uses Cloud Storage for Firebase to store, upload, and share pictures.

I reviewed the old default

I reviewed the old default

I selected Start in test mode

I selected Start in test mode

I noted that location defaults to firestore location

I noted that location defaults to firestore location

The Firestore storage was created

The Firestore storage was created

Installing the Firebase command-line interface

BASH
1npm install -g firebase-tools
2firebase --version
3firebase login
I ran firebase --version

I ran firebase --version

I ran firebase login

I ran firebase login

I ran firebase use --add

I ran firebase use --add

Run the starter app locally

BASH
1firebase serve --only hosting
I ran firebase serve --only hosting

I ran firebase serve --only hosting

I reviewed the web app User Interface

I reviewed the web app User Interface

Import the Firebase SDK

I navigated to the web-start directory

I ran npm install to download the Firebase SDK

I ran npm run start to start Webpack.

I reviewed /web-start/package.json

I reviewed /web-start/package.json

I reviewed /web-start/index.js

I reviewed /web-start/index.js

I ran npm i

I ran npm i

I ran npm run start

I ran npm run start

Configure Firebase

I copied the config object snippet and added it to /web-start/src/firebase-config.js.

I reviewed the snippet

I reviewed the snippet

I reviewed firebase-config.js

I reviewed firebase-config.js

I reviewed initializeApp

I reviewed initializeApp

Authenticate users with Google Sign-In

In the app, when a user clicks the Sign in with Google button, the signIn function is triggered.

I reviewed signIn() and signOut()

I reviewed signIn() and signOut()

I reviewed initFirebaseAuth()

I reviewed initFirebaseAuth()

I reviewed authStateObserver(user)

I reviewed authStateObserver(user)

I reviewed getProfilePicUrl() and getUserName()

I reviewed getProfilePicUrl() and getUserName()

I reviewed isUserSignedIn()

I reviewed isUserSignedIn()

I ran firebase serve --only hosting and tested sign-in

I ran firebase serve --only hosting and tested sign-in

I reviewed the messages

I reviewed the messages

Add messages to Cloud Firestore

A user clicking the SEND button the app adds a message object to the Cloud Firestore. The add() method adds a new document with an automatically generated ID to the collection.

I reviewed saveMessage()

I reviewed saveMessage()

I tested the "SEND" button

I tested the "SEND" button

I reviewed addDoc(...)

I reviewed addDoc(...)

I reviewed the messages

I reviewed the messages

Synchronize messages

To read messages in the app, I added listeners that trigger when data changes and then create a UI element that shows new messages.

I reviewed loadMessages()

I reviewed loadMessages()

I reviewed loadMessages()

I reviewed loadMessages()

Save images to Cloud Storage

After selecting a file, the saveImageMessage function is called.

I reviewed saveImageMessage

I reviewed saveImageMessage

I tested saveImageMessage

I tested saveImageMessage

Add a Firebase Cloud Messaging service worker

The app will notify users when new messages are posted in the chat.

I reviewed the service worker

I reviewed the service worker

Get Firebase Cloud Messaging device tokens

When notifications have been enabled on a device or browser, you'll be given a device token. This device token is what we use to send a notification to a particular device or particular browser.

I reviewed saveMessagingDeviceToken()

I reviewed saveMessagingDeviceToken()

Request permissions to show notifications

When the user has not yet granted your app permission to show notifications, you won't be given a device token. In this case, we call the firebase.messaging().requestPermission() method, which will display a browser dialog asking for this permission ( in supported browsers).

I reviewed requestPermission()

I reviewed requestPermission()

I clicked Allow notifications

I clicked Allow notifications

I reviewed the device token

I reviewed the device token

Send a notification to your device

Now that you have your device token, you can send a notification using the Cloud Messaging tab of the Firebase console.

I tested the notification

I tested the notification

Database security rules

Cloud Firestore uses a specific rules language to define access rights, security, and data validations.

I reviewed the updated Firestore rules

I reviewed the updated Firestore rules

Storage security rules

Cloud Storage for Firebase uses a specific rules language to define access rights, security, and data validations.

I reviewed the updated Storage rules

I reviewed the updated Storage rules

Collect performance data

You can use the Performance Monitoring SDK to collect real-world performance data from your app and then review and analyze that data in the Firebase console.

I reviewed getPerformance()

I reviewed getPerformance()

Measure first input delay

First input delay starts when the user first interacts with an element on the page, like clicking a button or hyperlink. It stops immediately after the browser is able to respond to the input, meaning that the browser isn't busy loading or parsing your page's content.

I reviewed the First input delay

I reviewed the First input delay

Deploy the app using Firebase Hosting

I deployed the app files to Firebase Hosting using the Firebase CLI.

I needed to specify in the firebase.json file which local files should be deployed.

I reviewed firebase.json

I reviewed firebase.json

I ran firebase deploy --except functions

I ran firebase deploy --except functions

I navigated to https://friendlychat-2ee95.web.app/

I navigated to https://friendlychat-2ee95.web.app/

References

Firebase web codelab

Patterns for security with Firebase: per-user permissions for Cloud Firestore