firebase npm package is not useable with browserify

nat...@bugherd.com

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Aug 1, 2014, 8:48:36 PM8/1/14

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It would be nice if I could use the firebase package on npm with browserify the same way other packages work (react for instance).

This would make it very easy to create isomorphic apps with the firebase npm package.

Jacob Wenger

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Aug 2, 2014, 10:45:20 PM8/2/14

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Hey there,

Thanks for the suggestion. While we do provide an npm version of Firebase, it is for Node.js, not for use in browserify. So you are correct and we will talk internally about making our libraries more easily consumed via browserify.

In the meantime, I do have a few suggestions for you (note that I have never used browserify before so ignore any of these suggestions if they are plain incorrect):

It looks like it is possible to use any git repo via browserify, even if it is not published to npm.
Our Firebase client is available via Bower (probably not totally useful to you, but worth mentioning): bower install firebase
If you get the client from our CDN, you should be able to copy it locally and do a require("./path/to/firebase.js") to use it in browserify (I think!)

Again, I am not a browserify user, but hopefully one of these things gives you a workaround until we get things set up with browserify. If you came up with a workaround, please share it here so everyone can benefit.

Thank you and good luck,

Jacob

John Nilsson

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Aug 3, 2014, 9:31:54 AM8/3/14

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+1 on npm packages for browserify. Also consider simple-login.

OTOH I'm probably going to switch to webpack to get some live editing going ( http://gaearon.github.io/react-hot-loader/ ). Since webpack can basically replace browserify maybe there are some shortcuts for you in that direction.

For now this is what I do:

index.html

<body>

<script src='https://cdn.firebase.com/js/client/1.0.17/firebase.js' defer></script>

<script src='https://cdn.firebase.com/js/simple-login/1.6.1/firebase-simple-login.js' defer></script>

<script src="browser-bundle.js" defer></script>
</body>

package.json

"devDependencies": {

"browserify-shim": "^3.6.0"
},
"browserify": {
"transform": [
"browserify-shim"
]
},
"browserify-shim": {
"firebase": "global:Firebase",

"firebase-simple-login": "global:FirebaseSimpleLogin"

}

BR,

John

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Jacob Wenger

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Aug 21, 2014, 8:48:18 PM8/21/14

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Hey everybody,

We just pushed version 1.0.21 of the Firebase npm module which now includes support for browserify. You should be able to just do npm install firebase (make sure you get version 1.0.21 or later) and then require("firebase") and browserify will work. No hacks required!

We will work on giving Simple Login the same treatment.

Jacob

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Keith Garrod

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May 6, 2015, 12:57:56 PM5/6/15

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Does anybody have a config for Firebase for webpack? I guess it shouldn't be difficult if it works in browserify, but I can't seem to get it working.

What I have done so far is:

providePlugin = new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
    _: "lodash",
    Firebase: "Firebase"
  })

and

  alias: {
      Firebase: 'firebase/lib/firebase-web.js',

When I try to use Firebase (new Firebase(valid_firebase_url)) I get an error:

TypeError: object is not a function.

Michael Lehenbauer

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May 6, 2015, 1:59:35 PM5/6/15

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What do you get if you console.log(Firebase)? If it's an object, I'm curious to see what its properties are. I don't know much about webpack, but it seems like it should work with the firebase-web.js version.

-Michael

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Keith Garrod

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May 6, 2015, 2:30:23 PM5/6/15

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Hi Michael,

Thanks, I'll have a look in the morning. Do you have an example with Browserify? It should work more or less the same.

Best,

Keith

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Michael Lehenbauer

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May 6, 2015, 2:49:11 PM5/6/15

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Well, with browserify you'd just do:

npm install firebase

Then create a JS file that uses it, e.g. main.js:

var Firebase = require('firebase');
var ref = new Firebase('https://mike.firebaseio-demo.com');
ref.set('Hello world!');

And then run "browserify main.js -o bundle.js"

And now bundle.js will be a standalone JS file you can include in your HTML or whatever.

-Michael

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Keith Garrod

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May 6, 2015, 2:56:33 PM5/6/15

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Thanks. I tried something very similar with webpack but it didn't work for me. I'll try again tomorrow.

Best,

Keith

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Amardeep Singh-Sibia

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May 25, 2016, 10:21:19 AM5/25/16

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Hi Keith,

did you get it to work with webpack? Have you tried v3.0.0 of Firebase?

Best,

Amar

Jacob Wenger

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May 25, 2016, 9:58:18 PM5/25/16

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The new 3.x.x should be compatible with both Browserify and webpack. We need to get them into the docs though! For now, see this other thread.

Jacob

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