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Some businesses can not afford to develop or maintain back-end infrastructure to use BaaS or Backend-as-a-Service services. As with other areas of technology, Google has a strong presence in the BaaS service with its product, Firebase. In this article, we will review the Firebase platform and introduce its features.

Application development is somewhat similar to letter writing. In fact, we do our best to design the envelope, but in the end, the content of the letter will be more important. Of course, back-end programming, hardware management, and hosting are not as easy as writing a letter, and most programmers are looking for people to care for them.

What is Firebase?

Firebase Inc. launched the Firebase software development platform in 2011 and was acquired by Google in 2014. As a real-time database, Firebase has 18 dedicated services and APIs, four of which are currently in beta.

The Firebase platform is a BaaS service developers use to develop, test, and manage mobile and web applications. The BaaS service allows the programmer to connect the required services to the desired application through dedicated APIs without the need to manage the database and related hardware.

Firebase generally has seven services that cover all the back-end components required by an application. It can also integrate with other platforms such as Android, iOS, Web, and Unity. In the next section of this article, we will briefly review the services of the Firebase platform.

Check Firebase services

Firebase’s main website divides the platform’s services into App Building, Quality Assurance, and Instruments for Business Growth. This platform’s main services are in the application development section, which we will explain in the following.

1- Database:

Firebase Realtime Database

The real-time database service is the first Firebase product, so it is considered the most stable service of this platform. The service is a NoSQL cloud storage system that connects to the application for real-time access to data from various platforms. Capabilities such as working offline, caching data in the device memory, and synchronizing (Sync) after connecting to the Internet are the most important advantages of this database.

The data is in the JSON web service and can be called by users. Data access is also permission-based, which will be implemented through Firebase Authentication and authorization by user identity or security rules.

Cloud Firestore

Another NoSQL cloud storage system on Firebase is called Cloud Firestore, which, unlike the Firebase Realtime Database service, is used for enterprise projects that require scalability, sophisticated information models, and advanced queries. The Firebase console can be used to view data in both databases. In addition, software kits (SDKs) for working with server-side code (Server-Side) can be used in both databases. These kits are available for developers of Python, NodeJS, Gulang, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET, and C # programming languages.

Cloud Storage

This service is actually a Google Cloud that stores users’ in-app content, such as photos, audio, or video files.

2- Authentication and hosting

Firebase Authentication

Firebase authentication is one of Google’s Authentication services, designed for applications that use Firebase. This service helps authenticate the user using a pre-built or customized user interface (UI); this service also allows users to log in through personalized documents, email, and social networks. Slowly

Hosting service

If you are developing web applications, advanced web applications, or mobile landing pages, you will definitely need hosting. Firebase provides static web hosting for applications built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It also uses standard HTTP and SSL protocols to enhance security.

3- Server-less applications

Cloud Functions

Another Google product is Cloud Functions, which executes back-end code from the cloud based on event-driven architecture, which is server-less architecture. This architecture means that applications will be developed as a set of separate functions in the cloud and will be interconnected through APIs.

4- Machine learning capability

ML Kit

This service is currently in beta, but it can be used to implement machine learning (Machine Learning) in mobile applications (Android and iOS). In fact, it is possible to use this service in most Google products, such as Google Lens. For example, features such as face recognition, barcode scanning, and text scanning can be performed through this service on the device and in the cloud.

5- Firebase testing services

Test Lab

The test lab service gives the programmer physical and virtual access to the application so the programmer can test his application in a real environment. The service can also be integrated with other platforms like Android Studio or Internet browser testing tools. This service provides crash reports to the programmer and, with its search bots, can scan the application and notify you of its bugs. Of course, incompatibility with iOS platform testing tools is one of the problems of this service.

Crashlytics

This service is a crash reporting tool that provides developers with real-time application stability problems. Problems identified through this service are ranked according to their importance, making it very easy for programmers to organize the troubleshooting process.

Performance monitoring

The service automatically monitors the application’s performance and examines other issues, such as the quality of the connection to the server and the application’s response time in various networks.

App Distribution

The App Distribution sharing tool is available to users on a trial basis. Developers can use the service to develop a hub for both Android and iOS applications and manage the pre-release version using the command-line interface (CLI).

6- Analytics service

When your app or website goes live, you can use Google services to manage users’ interactions with it.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the tools compatible with the Firebase platform. This service provides developers with valuable criteria for measuring user retention and motivation and their other application behaviors. Firebase reporting in this area is free and unlimited. You can also select specific events to follow and share them with other analytics tools.

7- Configuration and upgrade

Cloud Messaging

Cloud messengers allow you to send notifications between the server and the digital device. You can also send group messages to users depending on their subscription type, behavior pattern, and profile settings. This service is compatible with the Google Analytics tool, so you can track and configure messages without the need for coding.

Dynamic links

You can not predict which version of the application (web or mobile) users will use. Dynamic links transfer user information from one platform to another. For example, using this feature, the user can also see what he searched for in the mobile version of the web application.

Remote Config

Remote Config service allows you to update your application without republishing. This tool can be used to change color patterns and content.

Firebase Predictions

Prediction Service is a machine learning plugin that uses analytical data to help you predict customer churn or conversion rates and calculate customer revenue and retention.

Firebase A / B testing

This beta service helps developers test their marketing strategies using A / B testing. Since it interacts with Google Analytics, you can immediately measure the test results.

In-app messaging

Developers can use this service to send targeted and customized messages to users who rarely use the application. Although the service is currently in beta, it can be used in conjunction with Google Analytics and Predictions to perform Smart Targeting.

Benefits of Firebase

Using the products of large companies will often benefit users. Of course, this is not always true; for example, large projects such as Facebook’s Baas platform called Parse have also failed. However, Google’s Firebase product has many advantages, which we will introduce in the following:

• Firebase 2 provides developers with a very powerful database (Realtime and Firestore) and numerous other services and features.
• You can start your business with Firebase for free; however, you must pay a fee to increase your storage space in the database and use other facilities.
• This platform provides all technical information, APIs, and SDK resources. In addition, its social networks offer the latest information and news.
• Working with Firebase is so easy that people with minimal knowledge of programming languages ​​can integrate other tools using the Firebase user interface.
• Firebase Hosting has a content delivery network (CDN) with the Google Cloud platform.

Disadvantages of Firebase

• The real-time database is available to you as the primary storage space and is used to create complex queries. In addition, it isn’t easy to execute relationships between data in the real-time database. Of course, such restrictions will not exist in the Firestore database.
• The Bass platform generally has a cloud dependency problem. Data cannot be transferred from it to another platform.
• Although Firebase has a cross-platform feature, it focuses more on the Android operating system in the mobile section and does not support iOS applications.