This is great news. My last few web projects have all been based on Firebase because I focus on the front-end these days and I don't have to worry about scaling, databases, API endpoints and other nonsense which consumes a lot of my day. The pain of even getting a VPS deployed with support for Node.js, database and then figuring out some kind of redundancy to keep Node and my database running can also consume your day.<p>I used to favour Node.js for my REST API backend, but you can't beat the pricing for Firebase and generous free tier. One of the lesser known features is the cloud configuration service which gives you an SDK, it allows me to remotely turn settings on and off, syndicating them in realtime across all devices.<p>Oh, and the authentication functionality that Firebase offers with the painless SDK is absolutely fantastic. It's crazy easy to add Google/Facebook login functionality to my application and not worry about dealing with the pain of JSON Web Tokens, oAuth authentication and the other pain points of integrating social login. Implementing authentication used to be painful, fortunately services like Auth0 and Firebase are making it easier.<p>To those wondering who would use Firebase, I am a prime example. I am a front-end developer, but I come from a full-stack background. As I focus on the front-end, I've lost interest in configuring API's and backends, so Firebase handling this for me without needing to really do anything is a huge plus. I have no want, need or desire to ever touch a backend if I can avoid it.<p>For prototyping, you can't beat Firebase's cloud hosted database which utilises a JSON format to store data aka NoSQL without the scaling pain like MongoDB inflicted upon us. The rules engine that sits ontop of it allows you to configure it however you want, support for indexes and more.<p>Makes me happy to see that Google is doubling down on Firebase, it truly is a great product and I would be sad to see it discontinued.
Firebase needs to get a C++ SDK for Unreal Engine 4 so I can put it to use in the FPS I'm working on.<p>I would love to setup a master server browser list that updated in real time so that you can see by the moment the availability of servers and stats of current players in the server. I think Firebase would really make this electrifying! Right now the delay that Steam's master server browser list has is just so 1998.<p>After that I'd add realtime global chat to the main menu of the game and server administration without having to log into a server. Then maybe I'd play around with doing some funky stuff where I push player locations in real time to Firebase and use that to drive a webclient that just renders the map artwork and player location dots.<p>So many possibilities (!!!) but without a true C++ Firebase SDK I can't justify the time to develop these features or the SDK myself as I have a boatload of other tasks to complete for the game.<p>If anyone is interested in freelance C++ work and thinks they could create a true socketed Firebase SDK solution (not REST) in UE4 send me an email at contact@drivenarts.com
Excuse the tangent, but what problem does Firebase solve?<p>I was updating my app and AdMob and they want me to use Firebase now.
<a href="https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start" rel="nofollow">https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start</a><p>I wanted to know why should I include it just to use AdMob so I checked the video on the page: <a href="https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak</a>
They promise to explain benefits for me but they only tell me how to use it. The docs also don't do it.<p>It seems to me that it solves more some problem Google has than the developers have.
I am a super happy Firebase user from day zero. I've built many production-ready apps with it and will continue to do so. So far the only features missing that will make it <i>perfect</i> and a complete back-end solution are:<p>1. Server code (something like parse server code or AWS lambda) to run event triggers (eg: run more complex data validation or trigger a mail/sms after a ref is created/updated)<p>2. Full text search. When I need full text search on my apps I have to spin-up a server (normally nodejs) and build/keep a searchable index. Then I think: if I have to run/maintain this back-end piece I might as well build an API for my app and solve the lack of back-end code as well.<p>3. I am still not sold on React/Vue/Angular2 so the tried and tested Backbone framework is my weapon of choice. Sadly enough, there is no <i>official</i> library to implement Backbone-Firebase bindings so I find myself hacking patches.
I use firebase daily for my project. Love these new features in theory, but a little bummed haven't seen analytics or remote config make its way to the web SDK yet (all my projects are webapps).<p>Framing analytics as the 'heart of firebase' makes me a little worried about the future of firebase for web projects. Is firebase moving away from webapps?
Honest question to Firebase users - with Google's history of ending products, aren't you nervous about building your business on top of this? This seems pretty locked in.
I've used Parse extensively as a backed for iOS apps before and lately started trying out Firebase as a replacement. Firebase seems like a decent alternative so far, but there's 2 important features that I'd like to see:<p>1. Always immediate updates for Remote Config flags - currently Firebase uses old cached flags for up to 12 hours and only allows immediate updates in the "developer mode", but in production, sometimes you need to change a config flag for all users immediately, perhaps to fix a bug, and can't afford having clients still use the old cached values.<p>Also, it would be nice if Remote Config supported additional data types like arrays, dicts, and dates.<p>2. A non-realtime key-value datastore - most apps don't require a realtime database, so it'd be great to have a simple datastore where you don't have to worry about managing the number of simultaneous connections.
The free version of Google Analytics gets capped at a certain volume of traffic whereas Firebase doesn't. That's definitely one motivating factor to make the switch.<p>I'll be interested to check it out when they get around to introducing Real-Time user stats to firebase. That's a pretty crucial component of analytics which I have open all the time.<p>Google contacted me to switch to firebase from analytics. Seems like they're putting a lot of effort into re-launching the firebase brand this year.
What do you do if firebase dies like parse and stackmob? This quora answer makes a pretty persuasive argument as to why you shouldn't rely on these platforms: <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Parse-shutting-down/answer/Tim-Hampson-1?share=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Parse-shutting-down/answer/Tim-...</a>
I stopped looking at Firebase for a while since they seemed to have trouble with my multiple, simultaneous Google account logins. Pretty reasonable growing pains actually, and based on clicking around now, possibly fixed.<p>No opinion on the current news, other than that it's nice to see continued signs of life.
Interviewed a new YC startup recently called Scaphold they are a BaaS using GraphQL.<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294/mike-paris-founder-of-y-combinator-backed-startup-scaphold-talks-on-building-great-startups" rel="nofollow">https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294/mike-paris-founder-of-...</a>
So happy to be wrong about the future of Firebase. Firebase makes it so easy for setting up the basics of any crud and I'm glad Google continues to support it.
Good news & glad to see the continued investment in Firebase. It's quickly become the go-to BASS for our client's React apps; works great with Redux/Thunk.<p>Any update on the multi-domain hosting [0] issue?<p>[0] <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/firebase-talk/fcpBcBOJUBU" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/firebase-talk/fcpBcB...</a>
> <i>Google decided to double down on Firebase</i><p>So much so that they announced the closing down of another realtime service just last week, the Channel API [1], and are trying to funnel everyone into using Firebase instead. Frankly I'm not sure I even want to look into another Google service as I feel it'll get deprecated in no time as well. Better to use someone whose primary business I'm using.<p>[1] <a href="https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/deprecations/channel" rel="nofollow">https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/deprecations/channel</a>
Anyone has link to the new Firebase course in Udacity mentioned in the article?<p>EDIT: Also, if possible, link to join the realtime analytics beta, as I just checked in the Console, there's nothing new there.