I'm working on a project that has a REST API deployed in Firebase Cloud Functions. This API manages all the Firestore reads and writes of the end users. Since the API is in Cloud Functions we use the Firebase Admin SDK which will bypass the security rules.
My goal is to run the queries using the API but as a user so that the reads and writes are checked by the security rules.
I found a solution which is using the Firestore REST API coupled with the firestore-parser library to get a JSON result similar to what i'm used to with the SDK. It was okay until i had to make queries with filters. To do so i need to use a structured query but the syntax is really complex and i will have to do a lot of mapping to parse a where clause from the JS writing.
So my questions are :
Is there a way to use directly the Firestore client SDK from the Cloud Functions?
If not, is there a simpler way to use the Firestore REST API?
Related
The problem I'm dealing with is performance issues when needing to perform multiple Firestore queries in order to reach a result similar to to joins in SQL.
In my Flutter app, which uses Firebase and Firestore, I use Cloud Functions for serving my REST API. My API is the only thing that actually interacts with the Firestore database, not the Flutter app itself. I was always taught to design apps like this (not allowing the client to interact directly with the database) and so continued with that approach.
A potential solution I've seen are the official Firestore plugins for Flutter and have seen people designing their clients to interact directly with Firebase, however I haven't found any official documentation explicitly saying this design is preferred or even ok, and since it goes against when have been taught I haven't tried it yet. Can anyone confirm this or point me to documentation confirming this?
Edit
Perhaps it's worth noting that the reasons I've been told not to have the client connect directly to the database are 1. Security and 2. It would require business logic for managing data to be in the client and that should be handled server-side.
I have a Flutter app (still in development) that currently uses Firebase for the backend. More specifically, I use Firebase Authentication, Storage, Cloud Functions, Firestore and in the future I am willing to use Remote Config, Dynamic Links, Cloud Messaging and more of Firebase's features.
I got to a point where Firestore is not enough anymore for my purposes: Full-text search, geographical querying and advanced queries in general. I know that I can use 3rd party services like Algolia for this but It's too expensive and I wanted something already integrated with my database.
I was thinking of start using MongoDB as my database (while keeping all other Firebase services) but before I do that I need to understand what is the best way to do it.
Can I host MongoDB on Firebase Hosting (I don't know if this possible at all?) or just use MongoDB Atlas and access it directly (See my next question) from my application?
What is the best way to connect my application to MongoDB? From the app directly (using Rest API) or using Firebase Cloud Functions (so I won't expose my database)?
Can I use Firebase Authentication tokens to access MongoDB or do I have to use MongoDB's authentication service?
If there is more things I need to consider before I start switching to MongoDB please point it to me.
Firebase Hosting is a CDN for hosting static websites. So it is not possible to host an application like MongoDB server. You can't host MongoDB on any Firebase services. You have to deploy it somewhere else. There are several options. You can either get a VPS and install MongoDB server on it. But you will have to manage your own DB which can be difficult and can take quite some time. Another option is to use a Cloud Database like MongoDB Atlas. This is a faster and more secure solution. However, pricing can be high. So you have to decide depending on your needs.
Once you have a running MongoDB server, you need to write an API for client apps to communicate securely. Client apps should never talk with a DB instance directly. In this case you can use Firebase Cloud Functions to create an api.
You can use Firebase Auth service with Firebase Cloud Functions. You should have a look at the Firebase Callable Functions which can pass auth context to the function body. Here you can just ensure the user is authenticated or perform some access control logic depending on your authorization needs.
Overall, you are going to add an another layer to your architecture. It is possible but will take your time to set things up and you will loose some firestore benefits like offline persistency.
I have data getting stored in Google firebase (i.e. output of google vision API). I need the same data to get stored in MongoDB which is running on AWS. Is there a connectivity possible between Google cloud and AWS for data migration?
There is no out of the box solution for what you're trying to accomplish. Currently Firestore supports exporting it's data as documented here though the format of the export is probably not something MongoDB could import right away. Even if the format was compatible you would need some kind of data processing pipeline to handle the flow from side to side.
Depending on how you're handling the ingestion of Vision API results you might be able to include code to also send that data to MongoDB. If that's not the case you might need to design a custom solution for this particular use case.
I host my database on Azure. I would like to search data on the table in that database. I am trying to use B4I and the tech help their said I need to use REST API's. I am pretty sure I need to use ODATA. I have the auth token but I am not sure if this is even possible.
In order to query Azure SQL with an API you need to add a layer between it and the destination. As mentioned in this question, OData is a specification that can be implemented fairly easily as there are plenty of libraries that will take care of the bulk of the code for you.
As far as where to host the API, you have several options within Azure. The most common being App Services, Azure Functions, and Logic Apps.
I'm Cococa programmer, but right now I encountered situation when I can't go any further without smarter people:)
I always used small databases in my applciations. I programmed PHP backend on my own server and it worked good.
Right now I have to switch for something much bigger and I decided to try with Google App Engine, because it is relatively cheap and has great scalability.
I'm so confused with documentation and I really don't know where to start.
My new app will store data (images, videos) as well as database (mysql) in google cloud.
I concluded that for app like that I should use:
Google Cloud Storage for images / viedos etc.
Google Cloud SQL for CRUD operations for users (inserting and fetching personal data)
I would prefer to use JSON api. Then I don't have to write any Java, Python or GO code, right? Only REST requests for Google Cloud SQL...
My question is : Am I thinking correctly? Should I use these two services?
Google App Engine has a feature called "Cloud Endpoints" (Java | Python)
that automatically generates a JSON API similar to the APIs that Google provides for its own services (and also generates client libraries in JavaScript, Obj-C, and Java to invoke those APIs), saving you the trouble of writing the REST API yourself and manually serializing/deserializing the request and, instead, focusing on just the business logic that performs the storage and retrieval operations. So, what I would suggest is that you write the code that reads/writes data into the datastore (and cloud storage), but then use Cloud Endpoints to automatically generate your JSON API and client libraries, rather than manually writing that code.
Your plan seems fine so far. Google Cloud Storage is a great choice for storing a large number of images and movies, and Google Cloud SQL is a great choice for handling smaller, more relational data.
If you're using PHP from app engine, there's built-in support for Google Cloud Storage. See https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/php/googlestorage/
If you're using PHP from your app that lives somewhere else, you could write to the Google Cloud Storage JSON or XML APIs directly, but there's also a PHP library for the Google APIs that might be easier for you to use: https://code.google.com/p/google-api-php-client/