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Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

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Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#62

Post by javert »

biot wrote: post #60
javert wrote: post #9

Can't people find an alternative to the word "real-time" that hasn't already been used for 30 years to mean something entirely different? (As in, real-time systems, real-time operating systems, etc.) I'm not trying to put down Firebase, I imagine it's great.

Is this your stock response for any article that mentions real-time? You made an identical comment yesterday about Meteor; only the name differs: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3825728

No, I've never brought it up besides yesterday and today (as far as I recall), and I'm not planning to keep bringing it up and making it a crusade. I try to be a good community member.

Interstingly, I got much more feedback this time, probably due to catching the article soon after it was posted. It's also intersting that you noticed that I'd posted an identical comment yesterday and called me out on it; I was wondering if anyone would.

I hadn't given it much thought, but if making the same comment twice bothers anybody, I apologize.

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#63

Post by lurchpop »

pkrein wrote: post #4

I used Firebase to build thereelbox.com, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It took 2-3 hours from starting into the documentation to completed/nobugs/pushed to production. Credit for that speed goes entirely to Firebase. TheReelBox uses Firebase as a sort of API caching layer. This protects against rate limiting on the Rotten Tomatoes API, decreases request time by caching queries to the Fandango-via-YQL API, and eliminates…

dude. your site is dope!

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#64

Post by saurik »

mayop100 wrote: post #7
IanDrake wrote: post #6

This is cool. But can someone explain how data is secured in Firebase or Meteor? From the Leader Board sample: // Use setWithPriority to put the name / score in Firebase, and set the priority to be the score. userScoreRef.setWithPriority({ name:name, score:newScore }, newScore); How about I just change newScore to 100,000 in the debug window?

Good catch : ) We mention this briefly in our FAQ. We actually do have security in place (notice you can't enumerate other people's data for instance in our own tutorial), but the API is far from complete and we have no docs yet. There will be a full-fledged security model coming over the next few months.

That's only true until they launch a public product: at that point you can get access to or modify their data. It is downright irresponsible to launch a service like this that encourages people to use an insecure design for their service: security should be built in from the beginning, not tacked on afterwards, and even at the level of "this is a tutorial" it should be clear to the developer what they need to do to make it secure (not thrown into the advanced level of documentation, for example, like some companies do).

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#65

Post by BryanB55 »

MrJagil wrote: post #47

I'm a non-coder. A very simple guide to make a very simple, understandable web-app would be the killer feature for me. There is a tutorial for a chat-app but that's way over my head(I of course get how to put in the code, I just don't understand it (REST, roots, references etc). If I could be shown how to make something insanely simple, and I actually understood how it worked, it'd lead me on to the next thing. A col…

I'm the same way and have thought about this concept... I'm not even completely sure exactly what Firebase is but it sounds similar to that idea just requires more coding experience.

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#66

Post by jamest »

tlrobinson wrote: post #49
jamest wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Meteor is an application framework, like Ruby on Rails. Firebase is a database, like MySQL. We both think that application development is going to radically change in the future and we're both building products that promote a new way of developing apps. We're stoked about Meteor and see our products as very complementary.

Could Firebase be used as a database for Meteor? (i.e. replacing Mongo)

Absolutely

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#67

Post by mayop100 »

ique wrote: post #43

I couldn't find any (easily accessible) info about what it actually uses to communicate. Is it long-polling, websockets, something else? What kind of browser compliance is there?

It uses a variety of techniques, depending on what is available on the client. When possible we use web sockets in the browser, but have other methods we can use when they're not available.

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#68

Post by vvnraman »

pkrein wrote: post #4

I used Firebase to build thereelbox.com, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It took 2-3 hours from starting into the documentation to completed/nobugs/pushed to production. Credit for that speed goes entirely to Firebase. TheReelBox uses Firebase as a sort of API caching layer. This protects against rate limiting on the Rotten Tomatoes API, decreases request time by caching queries to the Fandango-via-YQL API, and eliminates…

Wow !! As a movie buff myself I think I'll be vising you site almost everyday now. This is what I used to do before:

  - Go to www.imdb.com
  - Click on 'See more movie showtimes' at the right.
  - On the next page, click on the 'Favorites' tab to choose a theater.
  - Go to maps.google.com and plan the route to the theater.
This is definitely going to save me at least a few hours every week while I check which movie is playing at what location.

And its got TRAILERS too !!! I'm addicted !!

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#69

Post by [deleted] »

pkrein wrote: post #4

I used Firebase to build thereelbox.com, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It took 2-3 hours from starting into the documentation to completed/nobugs/pushed to production. Credit for that speed goes entirely to Firebase. TheReelBox uses Firebase as a sort of API caching layer. This protects against rate limiting on the Rotten Tomatoes API, decreases request time by caching queries to the Fandango-via-YQL API, and eliminates…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Firebase, a scalable real-time backend

#70

Post by smoody »

Here's my big concern: If my entire app is client-based JavaScript, wouldn't that make cloning my app as simple as copying all of the JavaScript and other asset files and then associating them with another firebase account -- perhaps modifying them some so they dont't get banned?

It seems like it lowers the barrier to competition a bit too much for me.

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