nativescript-plugin-firebase

NativeScript Firebase plugin

Google's realtime app platform (Database, Authentication, Configuration, Notifications) firebase.google.com

Features

For readability the supported features have been moved to their own README's:

• Setup and troubleshooting (continue reading below)
• Realtime Database
• Authentication
• Remote Config
• Cloud Messaging
• Storage
• Crash Reporting

Prerequisites

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.plist which you'll add to your NativeScript project at app/App_Resources/iOS/GoogleService-Info.plist

• Android: google-services.json which you'll add to your NativeScript project at platforms/android/google-services.json

Installation

If you rather watch a video explaining the steps then check out this step-by-step guide - you'll also learn how to add iOS and Android support to the Firebase console and how to integrate anonymous authentication:

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" />

Android

Install packages 'Google Play Services' and 'Google Repository' in your Android SDK Manager

Open app/App_Resources/Android/app.gradle

• If there's no applicationId yet please add it to the defaultConfig node so it becomes:

android {
    ...
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId = "your.package.name"  
        ...
    }
}

Open platforms/android/build.gradle

• 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"

Usage

If you want a quickstart, clone our demo app.

Start-up wiring

We need to do some wiring when your app starts, so open app.js and add this before application.start();:

JavaScript

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);
    }
);

TypeScript

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);
  }
);

Known issues on iOS

Authentication failed: invalid_token

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.)
or
[FirebaseDatabase] Authentication failed: invalid_token (audience was project 'firegroceries-904d0' but should have been project 'your-firebase-project')

This is a known issue in the Firebase SDK. I always use a real device to avoid this problem, but you can pass an 'iOSEmulatorFlush' option to init.

firebase.init({
  // Optionally pass in properties for database, authentication and cloud messaging,
  // see their respective docs and 'iOSEmulatorFlush' to flush token before init.
  iOSEmulatorFlush: true
}).then()

Pod dependency error

If you see an error like Unable to satisfy the following requirements: Firebase (~> 3.3.0) required by Podfile, then check issue 98 which perfectly explains how to update your local Pod spec repo.

Known issues on Android

DexIndexOverflowException

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"  
  }  
}

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

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"
  }
}

FirebaseApp with name [DEFAULT] doesn't exist

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.

Could not find com.google...

And there's this one: "Could not find com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:9.4.0". That means making sure you have the latest Google Repository bits installed. Just run android from a command prompt and install any pending updates.

Found play-services:9.0.0, but version 9.0.2 is needed..

Update your Android bits like the issue above and reinstall the android platform in your project.

Future work

• 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

Credits

The starting point for this plugin was this great Gist by John Bristowe.