June 2014 Summaries

GeoFire 2.0 is an open-source JavaScript library built on Firebase that stores geographic coordinates and performs efficient, realtime location-based queries without loading distant or irrelevant data. Designed for applications such as transit tracking, car sharing, local recommendations, and event discovery, it lets developers add and retrieve keyed locations, define a query center and radius, and receive realtime events when locations enter or leave an area. The release is a complete rewrite that simplifies the API, improves performance, incorporates requested features, and adds comprehensive testing for production use. Demonstrations, including a San Francisco MUNI vehicle tracker and parking data examples, illustrate how GeoFire updates results dynamically as users move query areas or incoming location data changes.