November 2020 Summaries

Firebase announced two beta enhancements for Realtime Database: a new Belgium region, europe-west1, alongside the existing U.S. region, us-central1, and a REST-based management API. The Belgium location allows projects to store data in Europe and potentially reduce latency for nearby users, while the API enables developers on the pay-as-you-go plan to programmatically list, create, update, delete, disable, and re-enable database instances. Projects can use multiple instances, including instances across both regions, to scale capacity, distribute load, and improve performance; API access has been enabled for existing projects that used Realtime Database within the previous month, with Firebase Console support for creating Belgian databases planned for a future release.

Firebase is simplifying dependency management across its mobile SDKs by introducing unified versioning for iOS and promoting the Firebase Android Bill of Materials (BoM). Under the new iOS model, all Firebase products share a common major and minor SDK version, ensuring compatibility and making updates, GitHub tag mapping, open-source contributions, and eventual Swift Package Manager adoption easier; product-specific patch releases remain compatible within the same minor version. On Android, developers can specify one Firebase BoM version while declaring needed libraries without individual version numbers, allowing Gradle to select curated, mutually compatible SDK versions, though individual dependencies can still be overridden when necessary. Firebase also plans further improvements, including expanded Swift Package Manager support and simpler onboarding through Android Studio’s Firebase Assistant.

Firebase App Distribution marked its first year with updates aimed at simplifying internal Android and iOS testing workflows, particularly for teams that distribute frequent builds. New release search functionality in the Firebase console and tester apps lets users locate releases by version or release notes, while iOS in-app build alerts, enabled through a lightweight open-source SDK, notify testers when updates are available. Backend improvements have increased upload and download reliability, with some users seeing download speeds up to ten times faster, and version 2.0 of the fastlane plugin removes its Firebase CLI dependency to streamline CI setup. The announcement also credits community contributors behind Bitrise and GitHub Action integrations, invites developers to share feedback through Firebase channels and the Alpha Program, and directs new users to App Distribution documentation.

Flamelink is presented as a headless CMS for Firebase that addresses the difficulty non-technical clients may have managing content directly through the Firebase console, while allowing developers to retain Firebase’s backend capabilities. The tutorial demonstrates building an Angular-based Bedtime Stories application by creating and configuring a Firebase project, enabling authentication, setting authorized domains, and temporarily applying permissive Firestore and Cloud Storage rules for development. Users then connect a Flamelink project, define structured content schemas for short and long stories, populate sample content, and integrate AngularFire authentication and the Flamelink SDK to load and subscribe to content after login. It emphasizes that the example security rules are insecure and must be replaced with production-ready rules before deployment, and notes that Flamelink can support content management across a range of Firebase-powered applications, including mobile apps, websites, IoT platforms, and AI or ML products.