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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

#51
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…

Sounds like a well handled deprecation to me:

> The Channel API did not scale well enough for the workloads it was intended for and so did not find wide adoption.

> You can use the Firebase Realtime Database to achieve superior realtime functionality in your application. Firebase is a more robust and customizable solution than the Channels API, and it allows communication with a broader set of clients. It currently supports Android, iOS, and apps, and web browser apps.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#52

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…

> I don't have to worry about scaling, databases, API endpoints and other nonsense

You caused a lot of backend developers to shed a tear

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#53
post #28

Interviewed a new YC startup recently called Scaphold they are a BaaS using GraphQL. https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294/mike-paris-founder-of-...

Scaphold, along with Reindex, are pretty interesting. Don't know a lot about graphql, but it looks like they're both positioning to be firebase competitors. Both would have the distinct advantage (for the user, disadvantage for them) of using regular graphql queries in an app, meaning a project could easily migrate from one graphQL backend to another (whereas Firebase would require significant refactoring).

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#54

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…

detail: You don't have to worry about scaling up to 10-40k connections, which is great for small-medium apps (which is not scaling).

Once you go beyond that you have to manually shard and replicate data between shards and load balance your connections.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#55
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.

I think you mean "(at the moment) Google is pretty invested in...".

I'm finding I don't trust other companies any more, even those with the best intentions. I'll use them as long as I have an option to switch away to an alternative. If there is no alternative without a rewrite, no way...

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#56
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you mean "(at the moment) Google is pretty invested in...". I'm finding I don't trust other companies any more, even those with the best intentions. I'll use them as long as I have an option to switch away to an alternative. If there is no alternative without a rewrite, no way...

I don't know. Sure Google has axed a lot of projects, but how many have they axed the size (and investment) of Google cloud? Just on HN you'd think they have hundreds of people on it just from the "-source work on google cloud" comments.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#57
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Firebase Founder] The combination of the two is meant to help you maximize ad revenue. Since Firebase has a free & unlimited analytics product, you can see your AdMob stats in the same place as your other analytics data. From a conceptual point-of-view, the Firebase SDKs are now the place Google puts 'core mobile offerings', AdMob is one of those

With such a generous free tier, what are you guys doing to ensure you will be around in 5 years? Love your service, it just seems too good to be true.

Google bought Firebase back in 2014: https://techcrunch.com/2014/10/21/google-acquires-firebase-t...

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#58
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, Stewart here from the Firebase team. We released a C++ API for the Realtime Database earlier today targeting iOS and Android, you can get started with it here https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/cpp/start Using the C++ API within Unreal (assuming you're targeting mobile) is a little tricky as we have dependencies upon Android resources (e.g AARs) that can be hard to integrate into Unreal's build system. You…

Thanks for the response Stewart! In my post I completely forgot to mention that the game is currently targeting PC. Whats the outlook for a Firebase PC C++ SDK? (Right now I'd only be interested in the real time database.) Given UE4's success I think the effort to support the platform would be worth it. The use cases I listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. Think about it? :P

Yep, thinking ... no commitments for desktop support at the moment I'm afraid :)

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#59

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 perfect and a complete back-end solution are: 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) 2. Full text search. Wh…

On 3, there is https://github.com/firebase/backbonefire, which is our official library for the Firebase Realtime Database + Backbone. We'd be happy to work with you to add additional web features (Auth, Storage, etc.)

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#60
post #53
post #28

Interviewed a new YC startup recently called Scaphold they are a BaaS using GraphQL. https://soundcloud.com/user-925097294/mike-paris-founder-of-...

Scaphold, along with Reindex, are pretty interesting. Don't know a lot about graphql, but it looks like they're both positioning to be firebase competitors. Both would have the distinct advantage (for the user, disadvantage for them) of using regular graphql queries in an app, meaning a project could easily migrate from one graphQL backend to another (whereas Firebase would require significant refactoring).

yes it is scaphold.io and there was the first GraphQL summit last week in San Francisco and they were mentioning all the companies changing over and hiring for graphql skills.
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