The Angular Firebase Survival Guide: Build Angular Apps On A Solid Foundation With Firebase 29
The Angular Firebase Survival Guide: Build Angular Apps On A Solid Foundation With Firebase 29
Are you looking for a fast, scalable, secure, and simple way to build web applications with Angular? If so, you might want to consider using Firebase as your backend. Firebase is a platform that provides various services for web and mobile development, such as authentication, database, storage, hosting, analytics, and more. In this article, we'll show you how to use Angular Firebase to create a web kanban board app that lets you manage your tasks in different categories. We'll also share some best practices and tips for developing and deploying Angular Firebase apps.
Introduction: What is Angular Firebase and why use it?
Angular Firebase is a combination of two technologies: Angular and Firebase. Angular is a popular framework for building web applications with TypeScript. It offers features such as declarative templates, dependency injection, reactive programming, routing, forms, testing tools, and more. Firebase is a platform that provides various services for web and mobile development, such as authentication, database, storage, hosting, analytics, and more. By using Angular Firebase, you can leverage the power of both technologies to create web applications that are fast, scalable, secure, and simple.
Benefits of Angular Firebase: Speed, scalability, security, and simplicity
There are many benefits of using Angular Firebase for web development. Here are some of them:
Speed: You can develop your app faster with Angular Firebase because you don't have to worry about setting up and maintaining a server or a database. You can use the ready-made services provided by Firebase to handle your backend needs. You can also use the AngularFire library to integrate Firebase services into your Angular app easily. AngularFire smooths over the rough edges an Angular developer might encounter when implementing the framework-agnostic Firebase JS SDK & aims to provide a more natural developer experience by conforming to Angular conventions.
Scalability: You can scale your app easily with Angular Firebase because you don't have to worry about managing your infrastructure or resources. Firebase handles all the scaling for you automatically. You only pay for what you use and you can scale up or down as needed. You can also use features such as Cloud Functions to run serverless code in response to events triggered by your app or other sources.
Security: You can secure your app easily with Angular Firebase because you don't have to worry about implementing authentication or authorization logic. You can use the built-in authentication service provided by Firebase to support various sign-in methods such as email/password, social media accounts, phone numbers, etc. You can also use security rules to control access to your data stored in Firebase services such as Firestore or Storage.
Simplicity: You can simplify your app development with Angular Firebase because you don't have to worry about learning or using multiple technologies or tools. You can use Angular as your frontend framework and Firebase as your backend platform. You can also use the Angular CLI to create, test, and deploy your app with a single command.
Challenges of Angular Firebase: Learning curve, pricing, and limitations
There are also some challenges of using Angular Firebase for web development. Here are some of them:
Learning curve: You might have to learn some new concepts or skills when using Angular Firebase, such as how to use Firebase services, how to write security rules, how to use AngularFire library, how to use NgRx for state management, etc. You might also have to deal with some issues or bugs that might arise from using different versions of Angular or Firebase.
Pricing: You might have to pay some fees when using Angular Firebase, depending on your usage and needs. Firebase offers a free plan that allows you to use some of its services with certain limits. However, if you exceed those limits or need more features or support, you might have to upgrade to a paid plan that charges you based on your usage or resources. You can check the pricing details of Firebase here: firebase.google.com/pricing.
Limitations: You might have to face some limitations when using Angular Firebase, such as the lack of support for some features or functionalities that you might need for your app. For example, Firebase does not support relational database, full-text search, complex queries, etc. You might also have to deal with some restrictions or quotas imposed by Firebase on its services, such as the number of concurrent connections, the size of documents, the frequency of requests, etc. You can check the limitations of Firebase here: firebase.google.com/docs/database/usage/limits.
How to get started with Angular Firebase: Prerequisites, installation, and configuration
If you want to get started with Angular Firebase, you need to have some prerequisites installed on your machine, such as Node.js, npm, Angular CLI, and Firebase CLI. You can check the installation instructions for each of them here:
Node.js: nodejs.org/en/download/
npm: www.npmjs.com/get-npm
Angular CLI: angular.io/cli
Firebase CLI: firebase.google.com/docs/cli
Once you have the prerequisites installed, you need to create an Angular app and a Firebase project. You can use the following commands to do so:
ng new angular-firebase-app # create an Angular app cd angular-firebase-app # go to the app directory firebase init # initialize a Firebase project
The firebase init command will prompt you to select the Firebase services that you want to use in your app, such as Firestore, Hosting, Functions, etc. It will also prompt you to select the Firebase project that you want to link to your app. If you don't have a Firebase project yet, you can create one from the Firebase console: console.firebase.google.com/. It will also prompt you to configure some settings for each service that you selected, such as the public directory for hosting, the language for functions, etc.
After initializing the Firebase project, you need to install the AngularFire library and its dependencies in your Angular app. You can use the following command to do so:
ng add @angular/fire # install AngularFire library
The ng add command will automatically install the AngularFire library and its dependencies in your package.json file. It will also prompt you to select the Firebase project that you want to connect to your app. It will then update your environment.ts file with the Firebase configuration object that contains the information needed to initialize the Firebase app in your code.
Building a web kanban board with Angular and Firebase
In this section, we'll show you how to build a web kanban board app with Angular and Firebase. Our app will have three categories of tasks: backlog, in progress, and completed. We'll be able to create, delete tasks, and transfer them from one category to another using drag and drop. We'll develop the user interface using Angular Material and CDK. We'll integrate Firebase services using AngularFire library and Firestore database. We'll deploy the app using Angular CLI and Firebase Hosting.
Overview of the app: Features, design, and architecture
Here