Firebase Cloud Code (backend logic)

Question

I am thinking about using Firebase instead of Parse (as that is shutting down) for my future mobile backend needs. I really like the realtime database aspect of it, but it doesn't have backend logic easily integrated like Parse did with Cloud Code. Is there any easy way to achieve this functionality, or will it be coming soon? Thanks.

Answer 1

Update (March 10, 2017): Firebase just released Cloud Functions for Firebase, which allows you to run JavaScript functions on Google's servers in response to Firebase events (such as database changes, users signing in and much more). Additionally Zapier doesn't play all that nice with Firebase so there are better solutions at this point and with Firebase Storage, Firebase now offers a single solution for database, storage and push needs.

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Firebase doesn't directly support push's. However, Firebase is a live and dynamic database that notifies your application whenever data changes: added, edited or removed which may address the need for push.

Additionally, if you need to directly support pushing of data (instead of or in addition to the built-in functionality) you can leverage Zapier.com (or others) to provide that functionality.

Restricting access to data in Firebase is done with Firebase Rules which offer flexibility in who can access data (and can also guarantee how and what data is stored

Interfacing with S3 (file storage) can also be pretty easily done through Zapier, and depending on your file size (<10M) you could also save files in Firebase.