Write Once Deploy Everywhere

[jwjb]

I would like to know the best practice workflow for writing an app once using my existing JS, HTML and CSS skills along with Firebase to be able to deploy to iOS, Android and the Web with a single codebase.

Building Progressive Web Apps looks interesting along with Ionic, Cordova, PhoneGap, AngularFire, Service Worker Toolbox, etc.

I was an early user of Firebase over four years ago and then migrated to Meteor.js mainly because of the now deprecated free hosting plan.

Because of this and other reasons I am considering migrating back over to Firebase and want to understand the best practice workflow, toolchain, etc to get started to write once deploy everywhere.

[Brandon Paquette]

welcome back. i don't know much about the Ionic etc., but if you were into Meteor you likely have a great handle on JS, so you might consider React/React-Native. 

React is more or less a front-end framework that jives nicely with firebase, and React Native takes the React way of building apps & puts it to work on cross-platform mobile apps. You write most of the app in Javascript, but the results are apparently more performant than many of the 'write once/deploy everywhere' solutions (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWhxCz1Wmg)

Firebase works exceptionally well with React, imo, as (using 3rd party libraries) you can effectively connect your presentational UI elements directly to your Firebase data & letting things just sort of take care of themselves. Redux is a helpful library here, but does add a layer of complexity.

If you do go that route, there are a number of boilerplates available, but typically the projects involve Webpack, Babel, and a few other useful tools (grunt, gulp, etc., seem to be losing market share in the React community). 

(disclaimer: i'm a relatively new developer and have only really worked w/ React)