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A free, open source, complete, rapid development package for creating Social apps, Chat apps, Community(Forum) apps, Shopping mall apps, and much more based on Firebase.

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FireFlutter

Fire Flutter #

A free, open source, complete, rapid development package for creating Social apps, Chat apps, Community(Forum) apps, Shopping mall apps, and much more based on Firebase.

  • Complete features.
    This package has complete features (see Features below) that most of apps require.

  • Simple, easy and the right way.
    We want it to be deadly simple yet, right way for ourselves and for the developers in the world. We know when it gets complicated, our lives would get even more complicated.

  • Real time.
    We design it to be real time. All the events like post and comment creation, voting(like, dislike), deletion would appears on all the user's phone immediately after the event.

  • I am looking for community devleopers who can join this work. Please email me at thruthesky@gmail.com

  • Please post your issues at https://github.com/thruthesky/fireflutter/projects/1

Table of contents

TODOs #

Creating short samples on DartPad and post it as gist code #

Friendly Post ID #

  • To make a readable post id,
    • Get SEO friendly id from post title.
    • Create that a post with that ID
      • If exception happens with same document id exists, then get another seo friendly id with tagging 1,2,3,....

Display uploaded files #

  • The file upload functionality is focused on uploading and display images. what if the uploaded file is not an image?

Sample code #

  • Provide more sample code and use cases.

Full functional code #

  • Provide all the functions of firebase.
    • For instance, provide all the functions of user management from Firebase document.
      • Fireflutter may need to use callable function to call the function to provide the full admin functionality of authentication.
      • By doing this, fireflutter can provide user search, update, block, delete etc.

Bug on security rule #

  • User can list all the reports which must be shown to admin only.

Admin #

  • Since email & phone no are saved in firebase auth service, admin needs a special function to know what is the email and phone no of users.

Chat #

  • put many chat messages in one chat message box(balloon) if they are written in 20 minutes.

Post #

  • Do not increase view counter on same post. Save data on local storage. It's not a critical feature. It would be okay even if the view counter increases more than once.

Installation #

Running the example #

Creating a new project #

Firebase installation #

iOS installation #

  • Download ios app's GoogleService-Info.plist. And save it under <root>/example/ios/Runnder, Then open Xcode and drag it under Runner.
    • Remember to update other settings like REVERSED_CLIENT_ID into Info.plist.
      • When you change the firebase project, you have to update all the related settings again.

Firebase Realtime Database Installation #

  • To install Firebase Realtime Database, enable it on Firebase console and put the security rules.

  • Note, if you enable Firebase Realtime Database, you have to re-download and update the GoogleService-Info.plist.

    • You may need to update the GoogleService-Info.plist after enabling other features of the Firebase.

  • Add the following security rules on firebase realtime database

{
  "rules": {
    "presence": {
      ".read": true,
      "$uid": {
        ".write": true
      }
    },
    "inform": {
      "$uid": {
        ".read": true,
        ".write": true
      }
    },
    "users": {
      "$uid": {
        ".read": true,
        ".write": "$uid === auth.uid"
      }
    },
    "user-settings": {
      "$uid": {
        ".read": "$uid === auth.uid",
        ".write": "$uid === auth.uid"
      }
    },
    "settings": {
      "$docId": {
        ".read": true,
        ".write": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Firebase Storage installation #

  • Install 'Image Resize' firebase extension with the following settings;

    • Upgrade billing plan
    • This extension will use cloud function. It will install generateResizedImage function.
    • Cloud functions location: Choose the same location as your project.
    • Cloud Storage bucket for images: don't touch(or use it as it is).
    • Sizes of resized images: 200x200
    • Deletion of original file: No
    • Cloud Storage path for resized images: leave it empty.
    • Paths that contain images you want to resize: /uploads
    • List of absolute paths not included for resized images: leave it empty.
    • Cache-Control header for resized images: max-age=86400
    • Convert image to preferred types: webp Note, that you can see the configuration in firebase extensions menu and reconfigure it. Note, that you can see the location in firebase cloud functions menu.

  • Copy the following rules and paste it into the storage rules section.

rules_version = '2';
service firebase.storage {
  match /b/{bucket}/o {
    match /{allPaths=**} {
    	allow read: if request.auth!=null || resource.contentType.matches('image/.*');
      allow create: if willBeMine() && checkType() && lessThan(10);
      allow update: if isMine() && checkType();
      allow delete: if isMine();
    }
  }
}

function willBeMine() {
	return request.auth != null && request.resource.metadata.uid == request.auth.uid;
}

function isMine() {
	return request.auth != null && resource.metadata.uid == request.auth.uid;
}

function lessThan(n) {
	return request.resource.size < n * 1024 * 1024;
}

function checkType() {
	return request.resource.metadata.type == 'post' || request.resource.metadata.type == 'comment' || request.resource.metadata.type == 'user' || request.resource.metadata.type == 'chat';
}

Firestore installation #

  • Enable firestore.

  • Copy the firestore securiy rules and update it on your firebase project.

  • To install the firestore indexes, it is recommended to run the query and click the link of it to generate the indexes.

    • To do this, just call getFirestoreIndexLinks method and it will print the link on debug console. You just need to click the links.
    • See the firestore indexes and if you want to update it manually on your firebase project.

  • We use Firestore only for Chat and Forum features since they needs more support on query and search functionalities.

    • All other features should go to realtime database.

  • Note that, you need to create your own composite indexes when you build functions that query on fields that are not indexed by fireflutter.

    • For instance, you make a function for getting posts that have most no of comments on this year. then, you may need to create an composite index with noOfComments and year.

Setting admin on firestore security rules #

  • To set a user admin, Add the user's UID as field name(key) with the value of true in /settings/admin.
    • For instance, { "UID_AAA": true, "UID_BBB": true }, then users whose uid is UID_AAA and UID_BBB are the admins.

Security Rules Admin

Cloud functions installation #

  • We only use functions for the work that cannot be done by client end like sending push notifications.

    • We don't use cloud functions simply because we want to avoid multiple read and write on documents and to the logic simple in the client end.

  • To install,

    • cd firebase/functions
    • npm i
    • firebase deploy --only functions

Run cloud function using shell #

$ cd firebase/functions
$ cd npm i
$ npm i -g firebase-tools
$ export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=../firebase-admin-sdk-key.json
$ npm run shell

Sources and packages #

  • Jiffy is used for date and time.

Coding Guideline #

  • The file name of all model end with xxxx.model.dart
  • All model have .data property (getter) to export its model data to a map which then can be saved into firestore.
    • Note, that .data must contain only the data to be saved in firestore.
  • All model should have .map property(getter) to export its model data to a map. while .data only contains for saving firestore, .map may contain other values.

User #

User installation #

  • Do Firebase installation
  • Enable Email/Password Sign-In method to login with email and password.
  • Enable Google Sign-In method and add the following in Info.plist to login with Google account
<!-- Google Sign-in Section -->
<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
	<dict>
		<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
		<string>Editor</string>
		<key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
		<array>
			<!-- TODO Replace this value: -->
			<!-- Copied from GoogleService-Info.plist key REVERSED_CLIENT_ID -->
			<string>com.googleusercontent.apps.------------------------</string>
		</array>
	</dict>
</array>
<!-- End of the Google Sign-in Section -->

User data and user profile #

  • User email and phone number are saved in firebase auth. So, use UserService.instance.email or UserService.instance.phoneNumber to get email or phone number.

  • Other user properties (like name, photo url, birthday, etc) are saved in /users inside realtime database.

  • Many apps share user name and photo. For instance, when a user chat to the other user, they shoud know each other's name and photo. Or on post list screen, there should be author name and photo on each post or comment.

    • User information would be displayed as extra information on chats, posts, comments, public profiles, and so on. Realtime database costs by GB download that is cheap enough to use it as normalized. But it would cost a lot how you use it.

  • Warning, we do not denormalize user data. That means, user name will not be copied into other documents. Instead, the app will simply read /users/<uid> document whenever user data is needed. In this way, data integrity is guranteed. But often, more data will be downloaded and it will cost more money.

    • So, keep /users/<uid> slim. Try to keep only the following fields.
      • birthday
      • gender
      • firstName, middleName, lastName, nickname
      • photoUrl
      • registeredAt
      • updatedAt And think over again if it is really needed when you are trying to add another field.
    • Don't put user's setting data in /users/<uid>. Use may use UserModel.updateSettings() and UserModel.readSettings() to manage user's setting.

  • Use MyDoc to display my profile data.

UserService #

  • The reason why we need UserService is to hold login user's UserModel and update it on user document's changes.

User setting service #

  • User settings are saved under /user-settings/<uid> in realtime database.

  • UserSettinService is handling the update of user setting.

  • UserSettinService.instance.changes event is posted whenever user's setting is changed.

  • UserSettinService is used in many places.

    • Itis connected toUserModel.settings`.
    • It has methods for handling push notification topics.

  • Best way to use it

    • Use with changes stream to display user setting.
    • To update, simple call UserSettingsService.instance.update({ 'key': 'value', 'key': ... })
    • Then, to apply the changes anywhere simple use StreamBuilder(stream: UserSettingsService.instance.changes.stream, ... ). With this way, app does not need state management.

  • Use UserSettingDoc to apply user settgins instread of using StreamBuilder.

Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return UserSettingDoc(builder: (settings) {
    final bool selected = settings.value('home-menu-category');
    // ...
  }

UserSettingDoc(
  builder: (settings) {
    return Text('settings; ${settings.value('forum-top-category')}');
  },
)

Test users #

  • Create the following four test user accounts with password of 12345a using email & password sign-in.

    • apple@test.com, banana@test.com, cherry@test.com, durian@test.com
    • It is better to create test users with user utility. See User utility

  • Create an admin with admin@test.com as its email and 12345a as its password.

Phone number sign-in #

Phone Sign In UI

  • In most cases, you want to use Firebase Flutter UI for Firebase Sign-In and that's very fine. But with the Phone Sign-In built in UI, it's not easy to handle errors. So, fireflutter provides simple service for phone sign in.

  • To use phone sign-in, enable it. (and add some test phone numbers if you wish to test with test phone numbers.)

  • PhoneService has the service code of phone sign-in.

  • Fireflutter also provides UI widgets to make it easy to use in your app.

    • Simply add PhoneNumberInput widget to your screen and on code sent, move to sms code input page and add SmsCodeInput widget.
    • See example/lib/phone_sign_in_ui foler for sample code.

Example of verifying phone number. Note this example is only for short sample codes.

PhoneService.instance.phoneNumber = FirebaseAuth.instance.currentUser!.phoneNumber!;
PhoneService.instance.verifyPhoneNumber(
  /// Once verification code is send via SMS, show a dialog input for the code.
  codeSent: (verificationId) => Get.defaultDialog(
    title: 'Enter SMS Code to verify it\'s you.',
    content: SmsCodeInput(
      success: () async {
        /// User logged in.
        Get.back();
      },
      error: error,
      submitButton: (callback) => TextButton(
        child: const Text('Submit'),
        onPressed: callback,
      ),
    ),
  ),
  success: () => Get.back(),
  error: error,
  codeAutoRetrievalTimeout: (String verificationId) {
    Get.defaultDialog(
      middleText:
          'SMS code timeouted. Please send it again',
      textConfirm: 'Ok',
    );
  },
);

Email authentication under phone sign-in #

  • This email authentication under phone sign-in feature is only the case that the user logged in with phone sign-in. It may be used in other cases. But we consider the email authentication with phone sign-in only since we have phone sign-in service.

Email authentication under phone sign-in logic #

When user has an email already

  • User can update email or verify without updating email.

  • Before email verification screen,

    • Show verify email button when user has email but not verified.
    • Show update email button when user has
      • no email or
      • has verified email.

  • When button is pressed, move to email verification screen

    • Show verify email button if the user has email but not verified.
    • Show disabled update email button if email is not changed, yet or has verified email.
      • Enable update email if email changes.
        • Note, when new email address is updated to Firebase auth, then, the status of FirebaseAuth.instance.currentUser!.emailVerified becomes automatically false.
          • And even if the user changed the email back to the original email address, still, email verification status will be set to false.
      • When update email button pressed,
        • Save email,
          • If requires-recent-login exception happens,
            • Send mobile number verification code
            • And display sms input code.
        • And, send verification email
        • Then, listen if email is verified.
        • If verified, alert and go home.

Admin #

Admin status check & update #

UserService.instance.updateAdminStatus() updates wether the user is an admin or not.

  • Why; when user logs in, to know if the user is admin or not, the app must do an extra read on firestore document. And it costs money.
  • How; this method will update isAdmin to true if he is admin or false if not.
  • ide effect; there may be cases that isAdmin is set to true when the user is no longer an admin. In that case, UI may show admin buttons but the actions will fail based on the security rules.
  • Usage; call this method when user enters admin page or on any demand.
  • Recommendation; Put a secret(fake) widget like 'app version' that displays app version. And when user do 3 taps and long press, redirect the user to admin screen and call updateAdminStatus() on entering admin screen.
  • after calling updateAdminStatus(), the user's document will have isAdmin: true if the user is admin.

Translation #

  • Translation texts are saved in /settings/translations on realtime database.

    • The format of text field is like below.
      • { name: { en: 'Name', ko: '이름' }, ... }

  • There is a sample code for updating translation texts. App can use TranslationService.instance.showForm to show the form.

  • The translation texts are loaded on the constructor of TranslationService and the constructor will be run on first use of TranslationService.instnace.

  • Common fitfall,

    • When the app use tr method for the first time on home screen, the translation text would probably not loaded yet. So, it will simply return the input text instread of translated text.
      • To solove this problem, it is one way to re-render home screen on TranslationService.instance.changes event happens.
      • Other subsequently loaded pages, (if tr method was used on home screen or translated texts are already loaded), tr would return translated texts.
      • Or for home screen, it would be better to use Tr widget instead of using tr() method.

Get translated text #

  • To get the translated text, do the following.
TranslationService.instance.tr('ERROR')

Tr #

  • You can use Tr widget to display the translated text.

    • Tr widget support all the text properties.

  • Since Tr widget is a stream builder listenning changes of the text in realtime database, when translataion texts are updated, Tr would re-render immedialy.

    • Meaning, when /settings/translation changes, it will instantly update the text of Tr widget.
Tr('name', style: ...);

User presence #

User presence overview #

User Presence

  • More often, people want to know if their friends are online or not. Use this feature to know who is online. It has three status; 'online', 'offline', and 'away'.

User Presence Installation #

class _MainAppState extends State<MainApp> {
  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    Presence.instance.activate();
  }

  @override
  void dispose() {
    super.dispose();
    Presence.instance.activate(
      onError: (e) => print('--> Presence error: $e'),
    );
  }
}
  • To know if a user is online, offline or away, use UserPresence widget.
UserPresence(
  uid: uid,
  builder: (PresenceType type) => Row(
    children: [
      Icon(
        Icons.circle,
        color: type == PresenceType.online
            ? Colors.green
            : (type == PresenceType.offline ? Colors.red : Colors.yellow),
      ),
      Text(type.name),
    ],
  ),
),

User presence logic #

  • Run Presence.instance.activate() at start if you want to track the presence status of users.
  • If user didn't login to the device, the user will be offline by default.
  • If Presence is working, you will see the record in firebase realtime database data section in firebase console.
    • If no documents appears in firebase realtime database data section, then see the installation and issues.
  • /presense/$uid document will be written only when user logs in and out.
  • When app is closed, the user will be offline.

Displaying user profile #

MyDoc #

  • To display a user profile(name or photo), Use MyDoc widget that has builder function to build a widget based on the user profile data.

  • For the efficiency, MyDoc does not listen to the realtime database document change on every instance, since reading the document over and over again may cost a lot of money if it is used in many places.

    • It listens UserService.instance.changes event which only read one time on every user document change.
    • By doing this, MyDoc may be used for the replacement of state management.

  • MyDoc displays nothing when the user is not signed in.

MyDoc(
  builder: (UserModel u) {
    return Row(
      children: [
        Text('name: ${u.displayName}'),
        Text(', profile: ${u.photoUrl}'),
      ],
    );
  },
),
  • Some use cases of MyDoc
    • When user had signed-in Firebase, auth changes event happens immediately while the user's document is not available in UserService.instance
      • For instance, when app restart, the user signs in to Firebase Auth very quickly, and then, UserService begins to work to get user document into UserService.instance.user. So, user document is not available at the time of user sign in. But it is safe to use MyDoc since it has default empty values until it reads the document for the first time after sign-in.
      • To know if the user is admin or not, user document must be downloaded from database.
      • When user document will updated on every document change, and MyDoc will update its child widgets. So, MyDoc is a perfect solution to use as state manage based on user data change.

UserDoc #

  • To display a other user profile, use UserDoc widget. UserDoc does not listen to the document changes. It is one time read. And it is one time read only for all the app session. That means, it is caching user document and when UserDoc is re-used in other places, it does not read the user data again. In this way, it can save money.

    • For instance, when user scroll up and down on post list screen, the app has to read and download user document over again for the same post since flutter removes widget if it is invisible in list view. With UserDoc, you can display other user's data without worry of cost.

  • UserDoc may be used for displaying signed-in user. Especially for forms.

UserDoc(
  uid: user.uid,
  builder: (UserModel u) {
    return Row(
      children: [
        Text('name: ${u.name}'),
        Text(', profile: ${u.photoUrl}'),
      ],
    );
  },
),
  • Note, to display if the user is online or offline, see user presence.

User Auth State #

  • Build and display widgets based on user's auth state changes.
 AuthState(
   signedIn: (user) => Text('logged in'),
   signedOut: () => Text('logged out'),
   loader: Text('loading...'),
 ),

Chat #

Chat todo; #

  • when A enters a room with B, check if they are blocked. If yes, dispaly a warning.
  • when sending message fails, check if they are block and warn properly.
    • for instance, A request FriendMap to B, and A cannot send message to B since they are blocked. Then, display proper warning like "failed due to blocked" instead of meaning less message like "failed or permission denied."

Chat structure of Firestore #

  • /chat/messages/<uid>__<uid> is the collection of a chat room messages. Each document in this collection is the chat message documents that are handled by the ChatMessageModel. This is called message doc.

  • /chat/rooms/<uid> is the collection of a user's chat friends. The documents inside this collection are the users that he chatted. For instance,

    • /chat/rooms/<uid>/<uid> is the document of a chat room. This document has the room information. (This is called room info doc.) For instance,
      • /chat/room/A/B
      • /chat/room/A/C Then, the user A have had chat with user B and C. Note that, room info doc is also handled by the ChatMessageModel.

Chat logic #

  • If it needs a speed to work, then just rely on the security rules without check permission before action.

    • For instance, when A sends a message to B, it needs a speed. So, don't check if A is allowed to send message to B before it fails.
      • Once it fails to send the message, then check what causes the problem.

  • If it does not need speed, then the app may check permission first.

    • For instance, blocking a user does not need a speed. so, the app can check if the user can be blocked before it fails by security rules.

Chat logic - block #

  • Setting blocked properties in room info doc - /chat/rooms/<uid>/<uid>.blocked: true is not working deu to the inequality feature of Firestore.

    • You can order by timestamp where blocked == true. It's against inequality rule.

  • To solve this,

    • remove blocked user's room info from /chat/rooms/<my>/<other>
    • save user uid at /chat/blocked/<my>/<other>.timestamp.

  • When A blocked to B, both cannot send message to each other.

Reminder #

Reminder

  • ReminderService is to remind some to users with custom UI.

    • When the app has some to remind its users, push notification may be one option.
      • But push notification does not deliver reminders to the users who registered after sending notifications.
      • And it does not have an option like 'remind me later`.
    • ReminderService can do this.

  • It uses /settings/reminder document.

    • It is not recommended to edit the docuement directly insdie firebase console.

  • ReminderEdit widget is a sample code for updating the document. you can customize by copy & paste.

  • And ReminderService.instance.display() is the default UI to display reminder on app screen. You can also customize the UI by copy & paste.

Reminder code sample #

  • To display reminder dialog when there is a reminder, use the code below.
/// Define global key somewhere.
final GlobalKey<NavigatorState> navigatorKey = GlobalKey();


/// Apply it to MaterialApp.
class _MainAppState extends State<MainApp> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
            navigatorKey: navigatorKey,
          );
  }
}

/// Listen to reminder
///
/// Delay 3 seconds. This is just to display the reminder dialog 3 seconds
/// after the app boots. No big deal here.
Timer(const Duration(seconds: 3), () {
  /// Listen to the reminder update event.
  ReminderService.instance.init(onReminder: (reminder) {
    /// Display the reminder using default dialog UI. You may copy the code
    /// and customize by yourself.
    ReminderService.instance.display(
      /// Use the global NavigatorState to display dialog.
      context: navigatorKey.currentContext!,
      data: reminder,
      onLinkPressed: (page, arguments) {
        Get.toNamed(page, arguments: arguments);
      },
    );
  });
});

  • For updating, reminder, see the sample come of ReminderEditScreen.

  • You may use controller to update imageUrl outside of ReminderEdit widget.

final controller = ReminderEditController();
ReminderEdit(
  controller: controller,
  // ...
);

// ...
controller.state.imageUrl.text = file.url;
controller.state.setState(() {});

Reminder input data & logic #

  • There are title, content, imageUrl, link fields on the form.

  • At least, One of title, content, imageUrl must have value or dialog will not appear.

  • link has the information to which screen the app should move once user pressed on more info button. It must not be an empty string.

    • When more info button is pressed, ReminderService saves the link on local storage and calls the callback, then app can move the screen.
      • And when the app start again, it will not get the reminder document again from firestore since the link has already opened.
    • When user pressed on don't show again button, the link will be saved on local storage and when the app starts again, it will not get the reminder document again from firestore.
    • When remind me later button clicked, the app simply closes the dialog and when the app starts again, the app will fetch the reminder doc from firestore and display the reminder dialog again on screen.
    • When backdrop had touched, the app works the same as remind me later button pressed.
    • link can have in URL format. For instance, /[screenName]?postId=123&option=a&v=1.
      • When more button had been pressed, the callback function is being called and [screenName] parts goes to first parameter, and the rest part - {'postId': 123, 'option': a, 'v': 1} goes to next parameter.
        • So, the app can use these parameters to navigate into other route.
          • For instance, if link is /otherUserProfile?uid=USERA..., then when more button is pressed, the app will open the other user's profile screen.
      • If link changes, the ReminderService considers as a new link had been activated.
      • So, if you want to display a reminder dialog again with same url, then you may simply change the parameter a little like /post-view?postId=123&option=a&v=2.
    • Once link is saved on local storage, ReminderService does not get the same document of link again from firestore.

  • The default dialog UI has three buttons.

    • more info, don't show again, and remind me later.
    • User can press on backdrop and it work just as reminde me later button.

  • There are three buttons on ReminderEdit widget. You can update the /settings/reminder document with it.

    • When you press preview button, you can see the look of the default dialog UI with the reminder data.

      • When you press don't show again button on preview UI dialog, it saves the link on local storage.
      • When you press more info button button on preview UI dialog, it saves the link on local storage and calls the callback where the app can move to the intended screen.
      • Since the link saved, when the app restarts the reminder dialog would not appear.
      • One fitfall is that, when app starts, ReminderService will listen to the /settings/reminder with the link saved previously. and don't show again or more info button is pressed on preview mode. Then, new link had been saved on local storage. the but new link is not the same link that app is listening to. So, when save button pressed, the reminder dialog would popup.

    • When you edit and preview, you may add a version (test) value to see the changes.

      • For instance, /post-view?postId=123&version=456.

    • When you press on preview, it does not save the form data into reminder doc in firestore. So, you have to press save button to update the reminder doc. And then the updated reminder doc will be downloaded to users' app and reminder UI appears on all the online users' devices.

    • You may have an image upload button and update imageUrl with the uploaded image. But for now, you can input the imageUrl on the imageUrl field.

  • Only admin whose UID is set in /settings/admin can edit the reminder documents.

  • There is no fixed size of the image of imageUrl. The recommended size would be maximum of 512px width and the ratio of the width 3 and height 2.

  • If admin updates the reminder with changes of link very quickly like 2 times in a minute, then two popup may appear on user's screen. This won't be happening in production mode and won't be a big trouble.

FriendMap #

  • Idea
    When someone is seeking someone and both of them are foreginers of the place, how would they find each other? Both of them do not understand the country's language. FriendMap feature send a user's latitude and longitude to the other user. So the other can navigate on the map.

FriendMap installation #

  • Follow the installation instructions in google_maps_flutter package.

    • Hybrid Composition could be an option.

  • Follow the installation instructions in geocoding package.

  • Follow the installation in geolocator package.

FriendMap logic #

  • There are two users. User A and B.

  • A sends his latitude and longitude to B on chat. (So, when B is offline, he will get push notification by the built in chat funciton)

  • B opens chat room.

  • B click the link of lat & lon to open Friend Map.

  • the app navigates.

FriendMap informing logic #

  • Use Inform feature to inform friend request to the other user.

FriendMap testing #

  • Simply update /location/<A's-uid>/ and /location/<B's-uid> manully.
    • To make it easy, update the location programatically.

Inform #

  • When A likes B's post, how the app will inform B that he has a like from A?
    • Push notification is one option. But push notification may be delayed more than 1 hour.
    • Inform functionality make the communication in realtime.

Informing logic #

Let's say the app needs to deliver friend request from A to B.

  • When User A request FriendMap to user B, it's not easy to open FriendMap by clicking the chat message. what if user B has lots of users and having difficulty to open the chat room A?.

    • The solution would be; when A request FriendMap to B, the app on B side will open FriendMap screen automatically.
    • When B is offline and got a push message of FriendMap request, the device of B will automatically run WonderfulKorea app and open FriendMap screen automatically.
    • Later; it may be an option to open FriendMap automatically or not.

  • To make it work

    • All user must listen to /inform/<uid> when app starts.
    • When A request FriendMap to B, save lat & long in /inform/<uid>.
    • So, the app of B can open FriendMap with the data.

  • When B is offline, or the app is not running,

    • B will open the app (by push notification or whatever),
    • the app of B listens /inform/<uid>
      • If there is data, then delete the doc, and open FriendMap.

Inform data #

  • type has the data type.
    • FriendMap - it's a data for FriendMap and latitude and longitude properties are found.
    • type can be customizable and can have any value and addition properties.

Use of inform #

  • To start listening the inform data, call InformService.instance.init(callback: (data) {}).
FirebaseAuth.instance.authStateChanges().listen((user) {
  if (user != null) {
    /// Re-init for listening the login user (when account changed)
    InformService.instance.init(callback: (data) {
      if (data['type'] == 'FriendMap') {
        /// If it's a freind map request, then open friend map screen.
        Get.toNamed('/friend-map', arguments: {
          'latitude': data['latitude'],
          'longitude': data['longitude'],
        });
      }
    });
  } else {
    InformService.instance.dispose();
  }
});
  • When the app needs to inform to other user, call InformService.instance.inform(<uid>, {...data....}).
InformService.instance.inform(widget.room.otherUid, {
  'type': 'FriendMap',
  'latitude': pos.latitude,
  'longitude': pos.longitude,
});

For developer #

Building your app #

  • To build your app with firelutter, simply add it on pubspec dependency.

Building fireflutter #

  • Follow the steps
    • fork
    • clone
    • create a branch
    • update fireflutter
    • push
    • pull request.

Updating fireflutter while building your app #

  • If you are going to use fireflutter, then simply add it on pubspec dependency.
  • If you want to build fireflutter while you are building your app, then
    • fork fireflutter
    • add it as submodule in your project
    • add it as pubspec dependency with local path
    • when ever you want to update fireflutter, simple run <submodule-folder>/example/main.dart
    • after updating fireflutter, come back to your app and run your app.

Test #

Test method #

  • Since the Firebase libraries need to run on an actual device or emulator, we developped our own unit test & UI test.

Local test on firestore security rules #

  • We have local unit test for firestore security rules at <root>/firebase/test folder.

  • To run the test,

    • open <root>/firebase/test/test.js and update TEST_PROJECT_ID to your firebase project id.
    • run $ firebase emulators:start under <root>/firebase folder.
    • run $ npm test under <root>/firebase/test folder.

  • To deploy,

    • open <root>/firebase/.firebaserc and update projects.default to your firebase project id.
    • run $ firebase deploy --only firestore

Sample code #

  • See all tests code.
  • ./firebase/lab folder has some sample code.
    • post.add-missing-properties.js is for adding noOfComments and deleted fields on missing fields.
    • create.test.user.js is for creating test user accounts.

Node.js Utilities #

  • To run utilities
    • cd firebase/lab
    • npm i

User utilities #

  • Creating sample users
    • node create.test.users.js.

Forum utilities #

Deleting posts, comments, and uploaded files in a category. #

  • Delete posts and its dependencies in a category.

    • It deletes posts and its uploaded files and comments and its uploaded files.
    • node delete-category-data.js [categoryId]
      • Example) node delete-category-data.js discussion
      • Warning! once this utility runs, there is no turning back. all posts & comments are deleted for good. You need to backup first before you run this.

  • @todo - Note, this utility does not delete uploaded files, yet.

Issues #

  • These are the common issues you may encount working this package.
  • If you have any issues, please create an git issue.

firebase_database/permission-denied #

Unhandled Exception: [firebase_database/permission-denied] Client doesn't have permission to access the desired data.

Firebase realtime database is not working #

  • Open GoogleService-Info.plist under ios/Runner and see if the key DATABASE_URL is present. If not, enable firebase realtime database and download the GoogleService-Info.plist again. Remember to update related settings once you download it again.

firebase_auth/internal-error #

If you see this error message while working with Firebase Auth, check the followings;

  • Check if REVERSE_CLIENT_ID is set on iOS.
  • Check if GCP credential is properly set iOS.

Dyanmic Links Service #

Installation #

Installation on Anroid #

Installation on iOS #

Dynamic Links - Coding guide lines #

  • There are two senarios to handle incoming dynamic link events.

Terminated app #

  • First, initialize firebase app,
  • Then, Pass await DynamicLinksService.instance.initialLink to main app.
void main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  await Firebase.initializeApp();

  runApp(MainApp(
    initialLink: await DynamicLinksService.instance.initialLink,
  ));
}
  • Then, on MainApp, handle the dynamic links if it has any.
class MainApp extends StatefulWidget {
  const MainApp({required this.initialLink, Key? key}) : super(key: key);
  final PendingDynamicLinkData? initialLink;
  @override
  State<MainApp> createState() => _MainAppState();
}

class _MainAppState extends State<MainApp> {
  @override
  void initState() {
    if (widget.initialLink != null) {
      final Uri deepLink = widget.initialLink!.link;
      /// If you do alert too early, it may not appear on screen.
      WidgetsBinding.instance?.addPostFrameCallback((dr) {
        alert('Terminated app',
            'Got dynamic link event. deepLink.path; ${deepLink.path},  ${deepLink.queryParametersAll}');
        // Get.toNamed(deepLink.path, arguments: deepLink.queryParameters);
      });
    }
    // ...
  • One thing to note on the code above is that, If you do things like (alert, or navigation) too early before the app is rendered, the action may work strange (by racing). So, it would be better to take action after the app is rendered. You may use Timer instead of WidgetsBinding.instance.addPostFrameCallback().

For background(or foreground) apps #

  • Simply listen to the link event.
DynamicLinksService.instance.listen((Uri? deepLink) {
  alert('Background 2',
      'Dyanmic Link Event on background(or foreground). deepLink.path; ${deepLink?.path}, ${deepLink?.queryParametersAll}');
});
  • To test your dynamic link on iOS, you will need to use a real device as it will not work on a simulator. You will also have to run the app in release mode (i.e. flutter run --release) as iOS will block you from opening the app in debug mode from a dynamic link.
  • On Android, you may test with emulator.

Reports #

  • target is the data that is reported. It can be post, comment, user, image or any thing else.

  • targetId is the key(or document id) of the target.

  • timestamp is the timestamp of server.

  • reporterUid is the uid of the reporter.

  • reporteeUid is the uid of the user who is being reported. It is the user's uid who created the content.

  • /reports/ is the report collection.

  • /reports/{reportId} document will have the following data.

{
	reporterUid: "...uid of reporter ..."
  reporteeUid: "...uid of target data author..."
	target: "post, comment, user, file"
	targetId: ".... the key (or document id ) of the target"
	timestamp:  " server time stamp "
	reason: "reason of why reporter is reporting"
}

  • The report document key format is target-targetId-reporterUid. This is to easily secure by the security rules.

    • For instance, post-L8HDc07IYLGWd6puaVrT-1h0pWRlRkEOgQedJL5HriYMxqTw2.

  • A user cannot report same target & targetId.

    • To implement this, simple check if previous report exists.
      • This won't cost a lot since reporting does happens often.

Forum #

  • Forum functionality uses firestore to provide maximum flexibility for customzation.

    • You may extend forum functionality for shopping app.
      • To build shopping app, you may need to manage products as a post model and reviews as comment model.
        • You may add extra properties for products(product name, price, etc) and its reviews(rating, etc). And to search the properties, firestore would be better fit than realtime database.

  • Security

    • We want to avoid complicated security rules and cloud functions.
    • Mandatory permission check must be done by the security rules, like only allowing document update by the author.
    • But counting the like or dislike is not really critical. It won't be a big harm even if there would be a mis-counting. So, we don't do this work on clould functions. Instead, we do it on client side with transaction.

Category #

  • Only admin can write the category, but readable to every one.

    • Admin can set backgroundColor and foregroundColor that are only extra properties for UI design.
      • There are no fixed usage of those. It's up to you where you want to use these colors. You may use them to display colors on category menu.
    • Admin can set order for the priority on the listing.

  • If category does not exists, posting will be failed.

  • If admin deletes category,

    • The existing posts are still remained.

    • No more post can be created for the deleted category anymore.

    • If admin create a with the same category as the deleted one, then,

    • User can create posts again with that category.

    • One thing to know is that, when category had deleted, the no of posts and no of comments properties are deleted also. And when category had re-created with same category id, the numbrers are not restored. This may lead a problem.

    • @todo so, in the future, if a category has a post, it should not be deleted. And there must be a function to move all the posts from one category to another.

  • If admin set order to -1, then the app should not display the category in menu. There is no obligation on it. It's just a recommended rule.

Subcategory #

  • subcategory field is an optional field. It is not restricted by security rule. It is up to you how you use it.
    • One use case would be;
      • You want to make a separate screen(page) for daily log where user can post their daily affairs.
      • And you want the daily log appears in discussion category.
      • Then when a user creates daily log, app can set category as discussion and subcategory as dailylog.
      • So, the daily log will appear within discussion category and the app can display subcategory=dailylog on daily log screen.

Post #

  • Post model and comment model are a lot similiar, so they use same PostModel.

  • PostModel can be customized and used for something else like shopping mall feature. When you want to build a shopping mall app, it needs product model and the product model may have comments or reviews. The forum functionality with customized PostModel can do the shopping mall feature.

  • PostModel has methods like create, update, delete, like, dislike, and so on.

  • When user deletes a post,

    • If the post has no comment, then the post document will be deleted.
    • If the post has comment, then the document is marked as deleted, instead of deleting the document from the database. And user may update the document even if the post is marked as deleted. Editing post of delete mark is banned by security rule. This is by design and is not harmful. So, there should be some code to inform user not to edit deleted post. This goes the same to comment delete.

  • hasPhoto becomes true if the post has a photo.

    • This is a helper property for searching posts that have pohtos. Since firestore cannot have inequality expression on multiple fields, it wil help to search posts that have photos.

  • Date

    • When you want to get 5 posts that have most noOfComments within 7 days, how you would search? The answer is not so simple. You may want to keep a separate collection that holds posts that are created within 7 days. And it's not simple work.

      So, there we added some date information for a better search.

      You may do get 5 posts that have most noOfComments in last week. But not within 7 days.

    • Post document has date information like below

      • year - the year
      • month - the month of a year (1-12)
      • day - the day of a month (1-31)
      • dayOfYear - the day of a year (1-366)
      • week - the week number since epoch ( from Jan 1st, 1970)
      • createdAt - database's server time stamp for the time of document creation.
      • updatedAt - server timestamp for update. Note that, these date properties except createdAt and updatedAt are optional fields, and added by PostModel.create()

  • When admin creates a post, he can specify the document id. With this, posts can be managed easily.

    • For instance, admin puts welcome as document id, and he design the app that when user press on welcome button, the app read the post document of welcome and display it to the user.
    • Document id is easy to remember and easy to manage.

  • summary field is used for the short description for the post.

    • summary should not be seen or searched as part of the post. But it can be dispalyed as short description on widget, or anywhere.
    • It's not part of security rule, so if you want, to use it or not.

  • In the source code, documentId is being used to create a post with named document id. And this gives an easy way of managing posts since the named document id is easy to remember.

    • On the sample code, admin can input document id when he creates a post.
    • Then, the document id can be used to view the post or get the post.
      • App can display a banner and when user taps, app can redirect to post view screen by give the named-document-id.

  • Update at Mar 5, 2022 - noOfComments is required to create a post. The value must be 0.

    • By this, app can search posts with .where('noOfComments', isEqualTo: 0).

  • Update at Mar 5, 2022 - deleted is required to create a post and the value must be false.

    • By this, app can search posts with .where('deleted', isEqualTo: false).

Comment #

  • Comments are saved in /comments so it is better to be search. If it is saved under /posts/(postId)/comments/, then it is not easy to search.

  • Properties

    • postId has the post id of that the comment belongs to.
    • parentId is the post id if the comment is the immediate child coment of the post.Or parent comment id.
    • uid is the author id.
    • timestamp is the server time.

Push notification #

  • User tokens are saved under /message-tokens/(tokenId)

    • properties;
      • uid - user id or empty string if user didn't logged in.

  • user topic are saved under /users/(uid).

    • { topics: ['posts_qna', 'posts_discussion', 'comments_qna', ...] }

terms #

  • comment notification is an option to get notification whenever a new comment had posted under his post or comment.
    • comment notifyee is a user who will get notification when there is a comment under his post or comment.

How push notification wokr. #

  • When a post created, the app sends a message to the posts_category topic. That's all it needs.
  • When a comment is created,
    • the app sends a message to the comments_category topic,
    • And the app sends a message to authors of the parent(post) of the comments who didn't subscribed the 'comments_category' topic, but subscribed for 'new comments topic'.

push notification logic #

new logic) terms;

- 'comment notification' - Send me notification for new comments under my posts or comments.

- new sign-in user must unsubscribe to all topics before subscribing to user topics

conditions; - There is no more subscribing for all new posts and all new comments. Users must enable or disable each category indivisually.

ui;

how; - When a user subscribed 'comments_qna' and the user also enabled 'comment notification', and if the user create a post under qna forum, and somebody commented on it. Then, 'comment notification' will be ignored.

- for posts,
	A - subscribed 'posts_qna'.
	B wrote a post under 'qna'. then send push notification to 'posts_qna'.
	then A gets a push notification.


- for comments
	R - didn't subscribe both of comments_job and "comment notification".
	A - subscribed "comments_job" only.
	B - subscribed "comment notification" only.

	R wrote a post(postJob) under job cateogry.
	A wrote a comment A-1 under postJob.
	B wrote a comment B-1 under A-1.
	C wrote a comemnt C-1 under B-1.
	Then, send push notifications to topic 'comment notification'.
	Then, the app needs to find the authors of ancesters. that are R, A and B.
	And, see if they subscribed 'comment notification'.
		B subscribed 'comment notification', so he got push notification already.
		A didn't subscribe 'comment notification', so need to check if he subscribed 'comments_job' and yes, he subscribed to it. so, send a push notification.
		R didn't subscribe 'comment notification', so check if he subscribed to 'comments_job' and no, he didn't. so, he gets no push notification.

when user changes devices; - The app knows when the device has a token that are not saved in firestore, it is considered as new device. - Subscribe all the topics that the user has.

when sending push notification fails, see the error messages and remove that token from the database. so, it won't waste the network bandwidth.

Testing Push notification via terminal #

  • Prepare the data information and replace the value of to. Either token or topic ex. /topics/posts_qna
DATA='{"notification": {"body": "this is a body","title": "this is a title"}, "priority": "high", "data": {"click_action": "FLUTTER_NOTIFICATION_CLICK", "id": "1", "status": "done"}, "to": "/topics/posts_qna"}'
  • use curl to google api to send push notification attaching the data above. make sure to replace the FCM SERVER KEY with the google console Cloud Messaging Server Key can be found in google console project setting > cloud messaging > server key
curl https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send -H "Content-Type:application/json" -X POST -d "$DATA" -H "Authorization: key=2hU:AP8FpX2kNKZqqzmBdUg_BWuluihF6n............t3ykfXvzks83HWSpA.....oVjaCFN7S"

Fil upload - Firebase Storage #

pickUpload #

  • StorageService.instance.pickUpload will let user to pick an image(or file) and upload it in uploads folder in firebase storage.
try {
  String uploadUrl = await StorageService.instance
      .pickUpload(source: ImageSource.gallery, onProgress: print);
  alert('Success', 'Image uploaded successfully');
} catch (e) {
  error(e);
}
  • This will ask user to take a photo from camera or choose a photo from photo library and compress & adjust rotation, then uploads an image into firebase storage. It will generate thumbnail image with _200x200.webp suffix.

Delete uploaded image #

  • StorageService.instance.delete() will delete uploaded image and its thumbnail image.

FileUploadButton #

  • When a user presses upload button, the app will ask to choose image selection method.
  • Then, upload image using pickUpload method.

Displaying Uploaded Image #

  • UploadedImage widget will display the uploaded image.

    • It will first try to display thumbnail image. if it fails to display thumbnail image,
      • then, it will try to display original image. If it fails to dsipaly original image,
        • then it will display the error widget.

  • Errors with UploadedImage. When thumbnail does not exists, the error message below may appear. And this is not a critical error. Thumbnails are generated automatically by the cloud function. And sometimes, very rarely happens when there is no thumbnail generated.

════════ Exception caught by image resource service ════════════════════════════
The following HttpExceptionWithStatus was thrown resolving an image codec:
HttpException: Invalid statusCode: 403, uri = https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wonderful-korea.appspot.com/o/test%2F6_200x200.webp?alt=media

Uploaded file management #

  • When a file is uploaded,

    • type, uid, basename must be added as custom meta.
      • type is the type of parent object. it can be one of post, comment, user, or chat.

  • When files are uploaded with a post(or comment), the URLs will be saved in files property of the post(or comment).

  • When a post(or a comment) is submitted with uploaded files, then cloud functions will update custom metadata of those files in storage with the id of the post(or comment).

    • That means, when a post(or comment) has attached files, the files will have the id of the post(or comment) in its custom metadata.
    • So, you can delete files in storage if
      • they don't have id in custom metadata when their type is one of post or comment.
      • the url is no longer being used by the id of the post(or comment).
      • their parent (post or comment) has deleted.
    • @todo - Firefluter does not provide the deletion funtionality for some cases like user closed the app while posting with some image uploaded. You may delete it by yourself at this time. @see https://github.com/withcenter/wonderfulkorea/issues/77

Cloud Functions #

  • We want to avoid using cloud functions as much as possible. But there are some cases that we must use it like sending push notifications.
  • We also use cloud functions to send(for indexing) posts and comments into meilisearch and our own backend.
    • And we think, sending posts and comments into different palce can be done by flutter app, we may remove those cloud functions in the future.
      • One good reason why we do it in cloud functions is that, user can create a post or a comemnt not only using flutter app, but also using web site. And we don't have to implement the same code (for sending posts and comments into another place) twice.

Meilisearch #

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tSJJt8iJsXNl9vcBqYhKPkiRZR5JFo-SQE2SJ90GItA/edit#heading=h.g94frts1xgxo

Backup #

  • For Realtime database, use built-in backup feature in firebase console.

  • For Firestore, use fireflutter/backup/index.js to backup.

Firestore backup #

  • We use https://www.npmjs.com/package/firestore-export-import to backup.

    • It is best to place the backup server in same area(or country) of firebase region.

  • To install firebase backup node environment

    • # apt install npm
    • $ npm i

  • Make sure the node version is 14.x and above.

  • To backup

    • $ node index.js

  • To daily backup, put it in cron

    • The cron below will backup fierstore at 10:50 am every day.
50 10 * * * cd ~/fireflutter/firebase/backup; node index.js

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Metadata

A free, open source, complete, rapid development package for creating Social apps, Chat apps, Community(Forum) apps, Shopping mall apps, and much more based on Firebase.

Repository (GitHub)
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License

unknown (LICENSE)

Dependencies

badges, cached_network_image, cloud_firestore, cloud_functions, country_code_picker, dio, file_picker, firebase_auth, firebase_core, firebase_database, firebase_dynamic_links, firebase_messaging, firebase_storage, flutter, flutter_colorpicker, flutter_html, flutter_image_compress, flutter_linkify, flutter_polyline_points, flutterfire_ui, geocoding, geolocator, google_maps_flutter, image_picker, intl, jiffy, meilisearch, paginate_firestore, path, path_provider, photo_view, rxdart, shared_preferences, url_launcher, uuid

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