Day 2: Introduction to Firebase

Our App So Far

Refer to Firebase Docs for more detailed documentation regarding Firebase

If you are falling behind in the lesson, missed the first session, or you are encountering some issues with you app, feel free to download the "completed" version of the

Congratulations so far, on creating a basic Android app, in terms of both UI and adding interactivity to it!

However, there are still many things missing from our Android app, which most conventional Android apps have. For example:

1. There is no login system
2. We have no way of storing data online. All of our pets' data we have input into the app is reset when we close the app.
3. There are no "online" interactions in our app. For example, other people can't view our pets, or feed them :(

Firebase to the Rescue! (Kinda)

Most of the above issues listed above can resolved with Firebase. In a nutshell, Firebase is a simplified cloud platform that can add many online interactivities for your Android application, and is relatively easy to integrate. It is a suite of many services that can be added on individually.

First, we will need to enable Firebase for our Android app. Then, we will focus on just a few core services:

1. Auth to enable a working login system for our app
2. Realtime Database to allow us to store app data online (e.g. pet data)
3. Storage to let us store more complex files online (e.g. pet photos)