I am looking for a way to fetch data to my flutter app which can be adjusted and modified dynamically after deploying the app. As an example, if I want to change the images of the carousel depending on promotions or launch new books to the digital library. I need an economic option to host the data in cloud storage and fetch it from there.
I have considered firebase as well as google drive, but have yet to find a good guide. being a beginner and having concerns about security I want some expert advice if possible.
*edit-
Seeing many a tutorial I assume there is no better way than linking file URLs from the
Cloud Storage. So to dynamically change those is it possible to refer the URLs to some excel sheet fields to obtain URLs. Those fields can certainly be adjusted then without any hard coding. but the question is how to refer to such a sheet file? *
I also want to segregate the users into paid and free users, I have successfully proceeded with the authentication with firebase but still don't understand(I do have some concepts but don't know where to do that) how to put them in groups and impose limitations on them about accessing the data. any guidance, links and helpful advice will be cordially appreciated.
According to what you are looking for, I highly recommend you to use Firebase Remote Config, which is a cloud tool that allows you to modify your app's functionality and appearance without forcing users to download an update. You define in-app default values that control the functionality and appearance of your app when you use Remote Config. Then, for all app users or for subsets of your user base, you may utilize the Firebase console or the Remote Config backend APIs to modify in-app default values.
Your program can control when updates are applied, and it can check for updates regularly and apply them with minimal performance impact.
Remote Config comes with a client library that takes care of essential functions like fetching parameter values and caching them while still allowing you to manage when new values are active and how they affect the user experience in your app.
Here is a tutorial that uses Flutter and Firebase Remote Config that could also help you.
Related
I have been working with flutter for a couple of months now and it seems that there isn't really too much to work on an app for back-end or advanced functionality. I love using Flutter to help me design the UI but I want to use another language to help me do some other stuff. For example, I want to display a full-screen camera page (almost like Snapchat) or like send a direct message to another user through the app. Do I even need another language to do stuff like this? I am not an advanced programmer. I just want to create simple applications that can process and store a little bit of stuff.
You can easily do the mentioned stuff in Flutter/Dart.
Check out Firebase Messaging for direct messages and SQLite to store information on user devices.
For saving data locally,
You can use SqlFlite, a plugin with the help of which you can easily store and manage your database.
For saving data on the backend, so that other users can also access it when necessary, like the one you mentioned in a comment (..food ordering app)..you can use Firebase
Firebase has all you need.
Link to firebase :- https://firebase.google.com/
When your data is stored on a cloud, you don't need to hard code anything, for example, about the food ordering app you mentioned, you can make use of variables, in which you can store the values. So that when the owner changes the price, it gets updated.
Sometimes I need to run maintenance queries, like backfilling data of a new field I just created. How do I do this easily?
Firebase Functions seems targeted towards triggering on certain keywords or on certain schedules.
Basically, whatever I would do in MongoDB's terminal at will, I'd like to do in Firestore easily (even if I have to deploy code).
There is no set of "best practices" per se, but you can easily write programs to access Firebase and Google Cloud resources from your desktop. Just do some web searches for the server SDKs that provide access (there are many for different languages), and initialize them with a service account that has access to write data in the project.
I am totally new in mobile app development and consequently very confused about how to get going (independent from how much I have read Google Drive API documentation over and over again.)
The way I would like to implement my (initially "android") mobile app (which I will develop by using ionic):
I will have a Google Drive account where I will have 1 CSV file. I will periodically renew the content of the file in the background (possibly twice a week).
The mobile app that I will develop will just retrieve the file from Google Drive, process the content and show it to the user in a more readable (easy to understand) format.
My app will not upload any data/file from the user device to the Google Drive. The app will only retrieve a file from Google Drive to show the content to the user.
Question 1) Does this approach make sense? I ideally would like to eliminate the work for back-end development. Or would you suggest another approach to do the same thing (with or without Google Drive)?
Question 2) The authorization process looks quite confusing to me as it is explained in Google's documentation. I could not find relevant information only addressing the scenario I have in my use case. Requirements: The mobile apps can fetch the corresponding file (or the content of it) and process it to show to the end user, but mobile apps (or any other client) may not update/edit/delete the file, cannot add a new file either. The only purpose of using the Google Drive will be to enable the mobile app fetching the data that will be shown to the user. How can this problem be solved by using Google's OAuth framework? A step by step action plan would really be appreciated.
ADDENDUM
You are also welcome to share your view if I should instead consider using Firebase for my problem, which I guess will be more costly.
Based on discussing the requirements with you, I would recommend against trying to do this with Google Drive API.
There are no tutorials out there for Ionic 4 + Google Drive API, and only a few for older versions. It will be an uphill struggle to create a solution that isn't going to scale well.
Instead you should start looking into using Firebase.
There are lots of tutorials which show you the basics: setting up a login system, and reading some data from the database.
The free limits are quite generous.
You can implement caching into your app so that you store a copy of the data on the device, and only refresh it either weekly, or more advanced, put a second table in that records the last updated date for the main table.
Firebase charges by reads so if you can set it up so that you only read one record (last updated) instead of downloading the whole database every time, then you can stretch your free tier a lot further.
If you do outgrow the free tier and the app is not generating enough to cover the costs then you have the option of investing time instead of money. There are guides in the docs about exporting the users and they provide tools so that the passwords can be put into another system without requiring the users to reset their passwords. The database can be similarly exported.
This question already has an answer here:
Sharing data in between apps in IOS
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Closed 7 years ago.
I've been doing research on how to share data between applications securely. I'd like to get some info on the correct way to handle this before I do a deep dive on implementation using the wrong method. Just cause you can do something does not necessarily mean you should.
User Case: I am working on a suite of language learning apps that have a shared audio file base of several hundred audio files and json files containing important data corresponding to a language. I'd prefer to allow the user to not have to re-download the language bundle when they use another app in our suite.
1. App Extensions - Document Provider Non-UI Variant
According to the documentation:
The File Provider extension grants access to files outside the host app’s sandbox with the open and move actions. This extension (sometimes shortened here to file provider) also allows the host app to download files without presenting a document picker view controller. This feature lets the host app access previously opened documents using secure URL bookmarks, even if those files are no longer stored on the device.
On the surface this seems like a really solid solution. My main concern stems from the last couple lines where it state that the application can download the files no longer stored on the device. I want the files to be stored locally on the device to prevent constant downloading. If the Document Provider does store the files locally and allow the various applications in the group to access the files, then I think this could work.
2. Shared Keychain Access
Allows you to securely store data to a shared keychain that other applications that are part of a suite of applications can access. All applications that share keychain access must use the same app ID prefix. For an example of shared keychain access in action.
I've looked a little into the documentation of this one, and I think this might be the best fit. My major concern with this solution is whether or not there is a size limit to the data uploaded and if mp3/ogg/json file types are allowed. Most the examples/uses I have found with this solution point to sharing strings and small data, I am not sure if it will handle large data like json or audio files.
I also found this repo that apparently makes dealing with Keychain easier:
3. Custom Pasteboards
The custom pasteboard is best for the purpose of semi-privately sharing custom data between two applications. Custom pasteboards are identified using unique names. They can persist data beyond the application that creates them, allowing a pasteboard to hold onto data after the application is terminated or even after rebooting the device.
When writing or reading data to and from a pasteboard, you must specify a pasteboard type. Pasteboard types typically use a uniform type identifier (UTI) to identify the type of data going into and being retrieved from the pasteboard. See Apple’s UIPasteboard Class Reference documentation for additional information.
Above documentation pulled from this post
My main concern with this solution is that perhaps it is a bit of a hack. Logically a pasteboard seems like something that temporarily holds data and allows sharing between apps, whereas the solution I am looking for needs to be more of a permanent solution.
I'd appreciate any info on best practices towards sharing these types of files between apps. I assume there are plenty of other solutions I've omitted here, so if there is a better alternative I'd love some info on it. If it happens one of the listed solutions I have placed here is a good way to solve this problem I'd love to have some more info on your experience with working with them and if my concerns with them are valid, or nothing to worry about.
Thx in advance. As always, well written answers get up-votes ;)
I believe the best approach would be to enable data sharing by setting up an app group. This is Apple's recommended solution for sharing data between applications and extensions, and I believe for sharing data between apps in general.
See the section "Sharing Data with Your Containing App"
Also see "Adding an App to an App Group":
I need to make my app such that
the first screen will have the option : NEW and SEARCH.
2.Clicking NEW should allow the user to create a new profile,
3.but clicking search should allow to access one of the stored profiles by searching for the user number.
These profiles will actually be some data about the person, his name etc. and then yes/no answers to some questions.
At the moment my app works such that I can type in my name, and do the yes/no checks and I am using plists to save the info. this means that when the I start the app the next time the app loads with the saved info. So I have got half the task done.
Now how do I make it multi-user capable so that it has the option of creating a new file or providing a search option to access existing data?
also, I am creating the plist in application directory, using the code on apple's website, but I have no clue how to access these files directly..is it possible to access these files, if I want to show the information on a desktop? Thanks.
The key phrase you want for searching Apple's docs is: Data Management.
Specifically, I would recommend the Data Management Starting Point.
Handling data can be as simple as writing a string or array to disk or as complex as a big Core Data data model. If you plan on writing and maintaining several Apple API apps, I strongly recommend eventually learning Core Data.