Having developed applications using both Parse and Firebase, I find that I like Firebase more. In my opinion, the pricing model is better, and the real-time aspect is superb. However, it lacks a lot of important features that I am hoping will be added soon.
I understand that all of these features can be incorporated using a separate server, but that circumvents the benefits of BAAS, and undermines use of Firebase’s simple-to-use auth infrastructure. To make Firebase the best BAAS application platform, some gaps need to be filled in.
Here’s my prioritized wish list of features that I would love to see added in 2016.
Dynamic Uploads
Many types of applications need support for uploading documents, such as media files or text files. I know file data can be encoded and stored in the Firebase itself but that is expensive, in performance and money, and is really just a hack to get around lack of real support.
I’d like to see integrated blob storage where file data can be uploaded from the client using common MIME types. The directory structure would match the hierarchy in the firebase and use the same security mechanisms. The files could be read back using client-side JavaScript, but also with regular HTTP requests (e.g. image files) perhaps through a CDN.
Alternatively, Firebase could have support for third-party storage such as S3. However, it would be better to have an integrated solution with integrated pricing.
Payments Support
It should be easy to accept both one-time and recurring payments. I’d love to see integration with popular payment providers such as Stripe. The developer would configure how the payment results are written into the firebase. Alternatively, raw results could be written to a secure-by-default area of the firebase and a background job (see below) would read it and implement application logic.
Yes, middleman services like Zapier or Cloudpipes can be used for this, but it would be so much cleaner to have native support.
No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA
Firebase makes anonymous authentication easy. However, in many scenarios, it is useless without protection from bots. (thanks spammers!) Google already has a great solution for this. Google owns Firebase. Google meet Google.
Push Notifications
An ability to communicate with clients using standard messaging and email infrastructure is critical for many types of applications. See Parse.com. They excel at it. With Firebase, it would be nice to have the ability to schedule communications, asynchronously, perhaps by writing the requests a particular way into the Firebase and then listen for progress and results also written into the Firebase.
Background Jobs
While a goal of BAAS is to eliminate the custom back end, sometimes you need to execute some business logic. Perhaps you need a job to clean ephemeral data, or you need to listen for and handle a third-party service. This is another thing that Parse does well that really needs to be added to Firebase.
I would love support for Node based jobs that can be scheduled or run forever (using something like forever.js). BAAS developers don’t want to have to think about provisioning servers or anything like that. Just upload the script, configure how and when it runs, and monitor logs when needed. …with integrated pricing.
LinkedIn Auth
The intrinsic auth functionality that comes with Firebase is very slick, and it comes with built-in support for auth providers like Google, Twitter and Facebook. I’d love to have LinkedIn built-in, too.
Here’s hoping…
Happy New Year!!
Gary
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Same +1s as Doug!
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+Vuefire (first-class Vue.js integration)Vue.js is rapidly gaining popularity as a sane alternative to Angular or React. Here's an overview: http://blog.evanyou.me/2015/10/25/vuejs-re-introductionMoreover, Vue is also the Javascript front-end of record for Laravel developers, many of whom will be developing a newfound affection for Firebase once Triggers is rolled out.
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ref.plus(1)
ref.minus(3)
or
ref.plus(-3)
ref.plus(1).minus(3)
ref.moveTo(relative/Path || /root/Relative/Path)
Push Notifications & Background Jobs are good to continue. Thank you for the announcement.
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Also I would love to see this forum move out of google groups to a platform where it is possible to edit the posts etc (ie, http://www.discourse.org/)
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