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Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

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Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#31
post #26

> Google decided to double down on Firebase 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. [1] https://cloud.google…

Any idea what are the alternatives? Dont see similar offerings from AWS or Azure.

One minus point for Firebase is its Android SDK relies on the availability of Google Play services. Most of Android phones in China has no Google Play. So apps can not run even when you do not utilize any of Google Play services. In addition, there is no official words that you can use Firebase services within the great China firewall. It's better to look elsewhere if you have China market in mind.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#32
post #31
post #26

> Google decided to double down on Firebase 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. [1] https://cloud.google…

Any idea what are the alternatives? Dont see similar offerings from AWS or Azure. One minus point for Firebase is its Android SDK relies on the availability of Google Play services. Most of Android phones in China has no Google Play. So apps can not run even when you do not utilize any of Google Play services. In addition, there is no official words that you can use Firebase services within the great China firewall.…

Alternatives for the whole collection of Firebase services? Not sure, but for the realtime messaging/sync part I found the following four that I'll take the time to investigate as replacements for my Channel API usage.

* https://pusher.com/

* https://www.pubnub.com/

* https://www.ably.io/

* https://framework.realtime.co/

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#33
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Firebase Founder/PM] The Firebase Auth product existed before Firebase joined Google. We've upgraded it significantly, pulling in lots from Identity Toolkit. While we're not at full parity yet, I'd love to hear what's missing for you. There are lots of net-new features we've added [1] The cost is free for unlimited users (same as Identity Toolkit) [2] I'm sorry to hear you've had a poor experience with our docs, fee…

What's missing for me is Migration Guide from using official Facebook Login SDK to Firebase's. Also, would be great if there's a list of drawbacks of migrating (e.g. no more FB analytics).

Thanks for sharing. I'll pass this on.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#36
post #35

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 think the difference for Firebase, and contradictory to what happened with Parse, is that Google is pretty invested in cloud database offerings through Google cloud. My company doesn't use Firebase anymore (though we briefly did while building our MVP), but we would consider it again if the situation was right.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#37
post #35

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.

That's a great question. My answer is a solid YES.

I am worried. My entire business currently depends on Firebase from top to bottom. Of course I would have preferred this were not the case, but the services they offer can get you up and running very quickly.

I have to say, that over time, I may try and build my own tools that I know will exist in 10 years.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#40
post #25

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 da…

Question: How do you deal with authorisation? I've still yet to come up with a solution I'm happy with unfortunately; I'm currently relying on a custom token generated server-side that grants given users particular claims that I then check in the database rules, but it feels... brittle, I guess.

Exact same thing that we are using for a realtime collaborative app. Generate token on server-side with access to certain keys.

However, we had to redo our json structure once we started thinking authorisation. It sucked and in retrospect should have thought about it earlier, but it seems to work.

Typically authorisation layers on top of existing data, but in this case, we had to redo data structure keeping auth in mind. Is that why you feel its brittle?

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