Introduction to Firebase Realtime Database

1. INTRODUCTION TO
FIREBASE
Mustafa ŞENEL
mustafa.senel@sony.com
Software Developer @ SONY GSI

2. AGENDA
 What is Firebase ?
 Use Case
 Realtime Database
 Data Modeling
 Security Rules
 Pricing
 Conclusion
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3. WHAT IS FIREBASE?
«Firebase is a mobile and web application platform with tools and
infrastructure designed to help developers build high-quality
apps»*
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*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebase

4. WHAT IS FIREBASE?
 A set of tools which provides a full suite for app development
 Ability to create applications with no server-side programming
 Backend as a Service
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5. HISTORY
 Founded in 2011 by Andrew Lee and James Tamplin
 Initial product was a realtime database
 Over time it becomes a full suite for app development
 Acquired by Google in 2014
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6. WHAT IS FIREBASE?
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*https://firebase.google.com/

7. USE CASE – MOBILE APP
Usually our architecture
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DatabaseServer / REST APIDevices
*Icons made by Madebyoliver from www.flaticon.com

8. USE CASE – MOBILE APP
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*Icons made by Madebyoliver from www.flaticon.com
Access via REST or SDK

9. FIREBASE REALTIME DATABASE
 Initial product and the heart of the Firebase platform
 After a database update, new data is synchronized across all
clients within milliseconds
 NoSQL Json Database
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10. FIREBASE REST
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 Firebase can be used as REST endpoint (append .json to the
URL)
 Usage of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) as
usual
 Provides a set of Query parameters

11. FIREBASE SDK
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12. SDK - READ DATA (ON – METHOD)
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 Event based query system
 Provides different event types
 Listens for data changes at a particular location
 Callback triggered for the initial data and whenever the data
changes

13. SDK - READ EXAMPLES
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14. SDK - READ DATA (OTHER METHODS)
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 ’’once’’ Method
 Access like ’’on’’ method – but just one callback and not keep giving
updates
 ’’off’’ Method
 Detaches a callback previously attached with ’’on’’ method

15. SDK – WRITE DATA (PUSH METHOD)
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 Most common pattern for adding data
 Generates a new child location and returns its Reference
 Uses a unique key based on current time
 Because of the unique key, data is chronologically inserted

16. SDK - WRITE DATA (OTHER METHODS)
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 ’’set’’ Method
 Overwrites any data at given location and all child locations
 ’’update’’ Method
 Used to selectively update only the referenced properties at the given
location

17. SDK - WRITE EXAMPLES
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18. SDK - WORKING OFFLINE
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 Offline read and write data possible
 There are two offline modes
 Short term
 Local in-memory cache
 Long term
 Disk persistence Works on Android and IOS

19. USE CASE
 We are going to build a mobile application
 We have entities like User, Channel, Follower, ...
 One user can have many channels
 Each channel only belongs to one user
 One channel can have many followers
 Each follower can follow many channels
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20. DATA MODELING - NESTED NODES
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 Might be exactly what we need
 When we need channels always with full
follower information
 But
 Firebase is always loading all json
 There is no way to exclude properties

21. DATA MODELING - THE ELEGANT WAY
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 Add indexes to resolve two-way
relationships
 Association properties of the
relationship could be saved as the
value of this node

22. DATA MODELING
 Keep in mind – It’s a JSON tree
 Avoid nesting data
 Flatten data structures
 Create data that scales
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* https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/web/structure-data

23. SECURITY RULES
 Default rules are too open
 Access to everything even if signing in anonymously
 Mindfully data modeling is essential for real life rules
 Important rule types
 .read
 .write
 .validate
 .indexOn
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24. SECURITY RULES - EXAMPLE
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25. PRICING
25*https://firebase.google.com/pricing/ December, 2016

26. SOME FIREBASE CUSTOMERS
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* https://firebase.google.com/customers

27. ALTERNATIVES
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28. IN CONCLUSION
 Get fast in action
 Easy to use
 But sometimes we just need server-side code
 It is hosted
 Data needs to be well structured
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29. LINKS
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 https://gist.github.com/msenel/8b01bfca1490a490e2cc06a3bcb865ee#file-senel-bbs-
firebase-read-js
 https://gist.github.com/msenel/5e4179b2e78c20968b7102b2bc95f645#file-senel-
bbs-firebase-write-js
 https://firebase.google.com/docs/
 https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/web/structure-data
 https://www.youtube.com/user/Firebase

30. THANK YOU!