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
Analytics
AdMob

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 app/App_Resources/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

Now start an install script which will guide you through installing additional components. Check the doc links above to see what's what. You can always change your choices later.

cd node_modules/nativescript-plugin-firebase

If you run NativeScript 2.5.0 (only that exact version) then run (with other versions this runs automatically through a postinstall script):

NativeScript 2.5.0 is no longer the latest release, so you might as well update before adding this plugin to avoid this issue.

npm run setup

Config

If you choose to save your config during the installation, the supported options may be saved in the firebase.nativescript.json at the root of your app. This is to ensure your app may roundtrip source control and installation on CI won't run the questionary during install.

You can reconfigure the plugin by going to the node_modules/nativescript-plugin-firebase and running npm run config.

You can also change the configuration by deleting the firebase.nativescript.json and reinstalling the plugin.

Android

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

Google Play Services Version

The plugin will default to version 10.0+ of the Android play-services-base SDK. If you need to change the version (to for instance the latest version), you can add a project ext property googlePlayServicesVersion like so:

//   /app/App_Resources/Android/app.gradle

project.ext {
    googlePlayServicesVersion = "+"
}

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 (~> 3.13.0) required by Podfile, then run pod repo update on the command line to make sure you have the latest Podspec.

This could happen when updating the plugin to a new version. You'll want to tns platform remove ios && tns platform add ios as well to clean out the old pod version.

Known issues on Android

Genymotion

You can use the awesome Genymotion emulator but you'll need to install Google Play Services on it or you'll run into errors during authentication.

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 any version that matches com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:10.2.+.

That means making sure you have the latest Google Repository bits installed. Just run android from a command prompt, expand Extras and install any pending updates.

Also, an error like "Could not find com.google.firebase:firebase-core:10.0.0" can be caused by having more than one version of the Android SDK installed. Make sure ANDROID_HOME is set to the Android SDK directory that is being updated otherwise it will seem as though your updates have no effect.

Found play-services:9.0.0, but version 10.X.Y is needed..

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

`include.gradle`: Failed to apply plugin .. For input string: "+"

You probably have another plugin depending on Google Play Services (Google Maps, perhaps). We need to pin to a specific play services version to play nice with others, so open app/App_Resources/Android/app.gradle and add:

android {  
  // other stuff here

  project.ext {
    googlePlayServicesVersion = "10.0.+"
  }
}

Where "10.0.+" is best set to the same value as the version on this line.

Credits

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

yezarela/nativescript-plugin-firebase