If you don't already have a preferred IDE, we recommend installing VSCode https://code.visualstudio.com/download
Windows
https://git-scm.com/download/win
Linux (Ubuntu)
$ sudo apt install git-all
Mac Mavericks(10.9) and up
$ git --version
Running this command from the terminal will prompt you to install it, if it doesn't already exist
Troubleshooting
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git
Windows
Using the windows installer from the NodeJS Website
https://nodejs.org/en/download/
Mac / Linux
Using nvm (Node Version Manager)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
Troubleshooting: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm
Using npm (node package manager)
npm install -g firebase-tools
Troubleshooting: https://github.com/firebase/firebase-tools
Visit the firebase console and create a new project
https://console.firebase.google.com/
Step 1
Click Add Project
Step 2
Name your project
Step 3
Click Continue
Step 4
Select Default Account for Firebase and Click Create Proeject
Step 5
Click Continue
Step 6
Select Cloud Firestore from the sidebar and Click Create Database
Step 7
These are the security rules for the db, just Click Next
Step 8
No need to change the location, just Click Enable
Step 9
Your Cloud Firestore has been initialized
Pick a workspace for your project and open a terminal in your workspace directory
Then, run the following command in your workspace
git clone https://github.com/cfg-workshop/firebase-boilerplate.git
After cloning the project, navigate to the /firebase-boilerplate folder, you'll see many files such as .firebaserc .gitignore ...(more) and folders such as assets/, public/ and functions/.
assets/contains the images you see in this readme, so you can just ignore itpublic/contains the static website that we will be using as our documentation and api playgroundfunctions/contains your backend server
To connect this codebase to your own firebase project run the following command inside the /firebase-boilerplate directory
firebase use --add
Select your project-id from the dropdown presented
Create an alias called default
If firebase isn't a recognized command, make sure you have installed firebase-tools (instructions earlier in the readme)
If you face any further issues, it may be because you're not logged in. Running the following command may help
firebase login
Example:
First let's make sure that all dependencies are installed. Navigate to the functions/ folder in your terminal and run the following command
npm install
Now you can deploy by running the following command
firebase deploy
If the deployment was successful, you will see something like this in your terminal. The URLs you see will be different as it is dependent on your personal firebase project
Project Console is the console for your backend server. Over here you can see the logs and usage statistics of your server
Hosting URL is the website where your backend documentation and api playground is hosted. The API playground would not work right now, as the api is not yet implemented in this boilerplate. We will work on this together during the workshop
If your deployment failed, make sure you've correctly added your project and set up the alias in the previous step. You should also check that you have created a Cloud Firestore in your Firebase console.
When debugging, you might find it very tedious to keep deploying after every change. You might also not want to manipulate your database when testing functions which would behave unexpectedly.
So when you are actively developing and testing, we recommend you to use firebase's emulators. This runs your server and documentation website on your localhost and creates a local firestore which you can mess around with.
To use the emulators, run the following command
firebase emulators:start
Note: Emulators require Java to be installed in your machine. If you don't already have it, you can find installation instructions here https://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
If the command was sucessful, you should see something like this
Functions is where your backend server is located
Firestore is our test database
Hosting is where our documentation and api playground is located
Congrats, you're done! That's all the pre-work you need for the NodeJS and Firebase Workshop
If you're curious and want to read more on the tools we're using, you can visit these links:
- Firebase Cloud Functions: https://firebase.google.com/docs/functions
- Firebase Cloud Firestore: https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore
- Express Framework for NodeJS: https://expressjs.com/
- Swagger UI: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-ui