Firebase: How to keep an Android user logged in?

Question

I'm using Firebase SimpleLogin to enable Email / Password authentication. Creation of users and subsequent login is all working fine. However, whenever I leave the app (even if only for a few seconds) the user is never logged in on my return i.e...

authClient.checkAuthStatus(new SimpleLoginAuthenticatedHandler())...

Always returns a null user.

I am not logging out the user via the API. Also I have set the number of days the user is logged in to 21 in the Firebase console.

I have seen mention of a remember-me param in the JS docs, but I can't see any equivalent for Android / Java.

Wondering if I'm missing anything in the docs or if it's not possible for Android?

Thanks for your help,

Neil.

Edit: Added code sample.

User creation....

public void registerUserForChat(final MyApplication application, String email, String password) {
    Firebase ref = new Firebase(FIREBASE_URL);
    SimpleLogin authClient = new SimpleLogin(ref);
    authClient.createUser(email, password, new SimpleLoginAuthenticatedHandler() {
        @Override
        public void authenticated(com.firebase.simplelogin.enums.Error error, User user) {
            if(error != null) {
                Log.e(TAG, "Error attempting to create new Firebase User: " + error);
            }
            else {
                Log.d(TAG, "User successfully registered for Firebase");
                application.setLoggedIntoChat(true);
            }
        }
    });
}

User login....

public void loginUserForChat(final MyApplication application,  String email, String password) {
    Log.d(TAG, "Attempting to login Firebase user...");
    Firebase ref = new Firebase(FirebaseService.FIREBASE_URL);
    final SimpleLogin authClient = new SimpleLogin(ref);
    authClient.checkAuthStatus(new SimpleLoginAuthenticatedHandler() {
        @Override
        public void authenticated(com.firebase.simplelogin.enums.Error error, User user) {
            if (error != null) {
                Log.d(TAG, "error performing check: " + error);
            } else if (user == null) {
                Log.d(TAG, "no user logged in. Will login...");
                authClient.loginWithEmail(email, password, new SimpleLoginAuthenticatedHandler() {
                    @Override
                    public void authenticated(com.firebase.simplelogin.enums.Error error, User user) {
                        if(error != null) {
                            if(com.firebase.simplelogin.enums.Error.UserDoesNotExist == error) {
                                Log.e(TAG, "UserDoesNotExist!");
                            } else {
                                Log.e(TAG, "Error attempting to login Firebase User: " + error);
                            }
                        }
                        else {
                            Log.d(TAG, "User successfully logged into Firebase");
                            application.setLoggedIntoChat(true);
                        }
                    }
                });
            } else {
                Log.d(TAG, "user is logged in");
            }
        }
    });
}

So loginUserForChat method first checks to see if there is a logged in user and, if not, performs the login. Note that every time I start the app, the logging I see is....

1. Attempting to login Firebase user...
2. no user logged in. Will login...
3. User successfully logged into Firebase

If I exit the app, even for a few seconds, and return - I see the same logging.

One thing I noticed is that the call to checkAuthStatus does not take any user credentials - I assume it just checks for any locally logged in user?

Much appreciated.

Answer 1

[Engineer at Firebase] In order to transparently handle persistent sessions in the Firebase Simple Login Java client, you need to use the two-argument constructor which accepts an Android context, i.e. SimpleLogin(com.firebase.client.Firebase ref, android.content.Context context) every time you instantiate the Simple Login Java client.

See https://www.firebase.com/docs/java-simple-login-api/javadoc/com/firebase/simplelogin/SimpleLogin.html for the full API reference.