Google's realtime app platform (Database, Authentication, Configuration, Notifications) firebase.google.com
If you can spare 41 seconds, check this plugin's demo app in action:
- you need to store JSON data in the cloud (but don't want to loose data when the device is offline),
- you want to sync that data to other devices and platforms,
- you want to optionally protect that data by having users log in,
- you want to update clients at the moment the data changes (think chat and multiplayer games),
- you want an easy way to remotely configure app features,
- you want push notifications.
Head on over to https://console.firebase.google.com/ and sign up for a free account.
Your first 'Firebase' will be automatically created and made available via an URL like https://n-plugin-test.firebaseio.com.
Open your Firebase project at the Google console and click 'Add app' to add an iOS and / or Android app. Follow the steps (make sure the bundle id is the same as your nativescript.id in package.json and you'll be able to download:
-
iOS:
GoogleService-Info.plistwhich you'll add to your NativeScript project atapp/App_Resources/iOS/GoogleService-Info.plist -
Android:
google-services.jsonwhich you'll add to your NativeScript project atplatforms/android/google-services.json
From the command prompt go to your app's root folder and execute:
tns plugin add nativescript-plugin-firebase
And do yourself a favor by adding TypeScript support to your nativeScript app:
tns install typescript
Then open references.d.ts in the root of your project and add this line to get autocompletion and type-checking for this plugin:
/// <reference path="./node_modules/nativescript-plugin-firebase/firebase.d.ts" />
Install packages 'Google Play Services' and 'Google Repository' in your Android SDK Manager
- If there's no
applicationIdyet please add it to thedefaultConfignode so it becomes:
android {
...
defaultConfig {
applicationId = "your.package.name"
...
}
}
- Near the top there's a dependencies section, add
classpath "com.google.gms:google-services:3.0.0"so it becomes something like:
dependencies {
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:1.5.0"
classpath "com.google.gms:google-services:3.0.0"
}
- Add the very bottom of the same file add
apply plugin: "com.google.gms.google-services"
If you want a quickstart, clone our demo app (an older version is used in the YouTube video).
We need to do some wiring when your app starts, so open app.js and add this before application.start();:
var firebase = require("nativescript-plugin-firebase");
firebase.init({
// Optionally pass in properties for database, authentication and cloud messaging,
// see their respective docs.
}).then(
function (instance) {
console.log("firebase.init done");
},
function (error) {
console.log("firebase.init error: " + error);
}
);import firebase = require("nativescript-plugin-firebase");
firebase.init({
// Optionally pass in properties for database, authentication and cloud messaging,
// see their respective docs.
}).then(
(instance) => {
console.log("firebase.init done");
},
(error) => {
console.log("firebase.init error: " + error);
}
);For readability the supported features have been moved to their own README's:
On the simulator you may see this message if you have more than one app with the Firebase SDK ever installed:
[FirebaseDatabase] Authentication failed: invalid_token (Invalid claim 'aud' in auth token.)
This is a known issue in the Firebase SDK. I always use a real device to avoid this problem.
com.android.dex.DexIndexOverflowException: method ID not in..
Congrats, you ran into this issue
which can be solved by adding multiDexEnabled true to your app/App_Resources/Android/app.gradle
so it becomes something like this:
android {
defaultConfig {
applicationId = "__PACKAGE__"
multiDexEnabled true
generatedDensities = []
}
aaptOptions {
additionalParameters "--no-version-vectors"
}
}
Increase the Java Max Heap Size like this (the bit at the end):
android {
defaultConfig {
applicationId = "__PACKAGE__"
multiDexEnabled true
generatedDensities = []
}
aaptOptions {
additionalParameters "--no-version-vectors"
}
dexOptions {
javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
}
}
Another possible error is "FirebaseApp with name [DEFAULT] doesn't exist." which will be solved by
placing google-services.json to platforms/android/google-services.json (see above), and making
the changes to build.gradle which are mentioned above as well.
And there's this one: "Could not find com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:9.0.2". That means
making sure you have the latest Google Repository bits installed.
Just run android from a command prompt and install any pending updates.
Update your Android bits like the issue above and reinstall the android platform in your project.
- Add support for
removeEventListener - Possibly add more login mechanisms
- Add other Firebase 3.x SDK features (there's already a few feature requests in the GitHub issue tracker
The starting point for this plugin was this great Gist by John Bristowe.