Getting Started with Cloud Functions for Firebase - Firecasts Video Lecture | Beast Android Development: Firebase Necessities - App Development

hey how's it going firebase developers
my name is Jen person and I'm kicking
off this new series on cloud functions
for firebase I'm going to assume you
already know about using firebase on
Android iOS or the web any platform is
okay because we're going to start
writing back-end code for your firebase
app so it doesn't matter what mobile
platform your app is on cloud functions
is part of the Google cloud platform and
it lets you write and deploy code that
responds to events from Google cloud
services including firebase features
that you might be using with this you
can sort of glue together the parts of
your apps that are built on firebase and
it all happens in the Google cloud not
inside your mobile app so this is a
great way to keep your application logic
centralized and safe all without having
to manage your own servers that's right
you don't have to set up any servers
scale them up or down to meet user
demand or doing any maintenance on them
you just write in deploy code some
people call that serverless architecture
because you never have to worry about or
even know the servers that are running
your code the way it works with firebase
is that your code is triggered in
response to events coming from firebase
features for example rights to your
firebase real-time database can trigger
a function as can new file uploads to
your storage bucket you can respond to
new user authentication and conversion
events in firebase analytics also you
can respond to incoming web requests
over secure HTTP and on top of all that
you can use firebase Cloud messaging to
send push data to your users when one of
these events occurs now there's a lot to
unpack here and it's more than I can
cover in a single video but I'll get you
started deploying your first cloud
function so you can experiment with it
I will do it in JavaScript running in
the node.js environment if you don't
know JavaScript that's okay maybe now is
a good time to start learning it and we
do plan on supporting more languages in
the future but before writing any code
let's go over the things you'll need to
do first first set up a firebase project
if you haven't done so already you can
create one at the firebase console with
the link in the description next you'll
need to install node on your computer
there are instructions for that if you
go to node.js org there are instructions
for Windows Mac OS
and Linux after you install node the
instructions in this video are mostly
the same for each platform I'm using OS
10 and I also happen to be using a
package manager called home fruit to
make installation and upgrading easing
whatever you choose you should get a
recent version of node and make sure it
gets installed in the path of your
command shell you can check your version
on any system like this you'll need at
least version 6 point 3 point 1 also
your node installation should include
NPM which stands for node package
manager you can check the version of it
to
once you have node installed it's time
to get the firebase command-line
interface you may only have this if
you've worked with other firebase
features on the command line
but you should get the latest version to
work with cloud functions so let's do
that
you can install the firebase
command-line tools with NPM like this be
sure to use - tree to install this
module globally on Linux you may have to
run it with sudo to make sure
installation completes successfully and
when it's done you can again check the
version ok now you have all the software
installed to do development with cloud
functions it helps to keep these tools
up to date
so you can stay on top of future changes
the last tool you might want to think
about is getting an editor for Java
Script you can use any code editor you
want but I'm going to be singing an
editor called vs code after you've got
all your development tools set up you'll
need to initialize a space to work on
your class functions code I'm going to
use a new folder within my home
directory at the command line I'm going
to create and change the directory I
want to use in order to work with my
firebase project I need to log in with
an account that has access to it the
command firebase login we'll kick that
off and open a tab in chrome it's asking
me for some permissions and I'll allow
it back to the command line the next
thing I need to do is run firebase in it
to create some project scaffolding when
I do that I get some awesome flaming
firebase and then it asked me what I
want to set up right now I only want to
set up functions so I'm going to use the
arrow keys and spacebar to deselect
database and housing leaving only
functions then press ENTER to proceed
now it's asking me which are my firebase
projects I want to deploy by default I'm
going to again use the
arrow keys to choose the project I want
then press ENTER it's going to create
some files and folders here and now it's
asking me to install some dependencies
with NPM I do want them because I'm
going to use those modules to write
functions so I hit enter again and make
that happen what's happening now is the
installation of those modules with NPM
and the last thing it did was write a
couple more files to configure my
project all the interesting stuff is in
the functions directory that it created
for me so I'll jump in there there's
three important things here first
package.json is a file used by nô to
describe my project you can see here
that has dependencies for firebase admin
and firebase functions these were the
modules that npm installed for me
earlier along with all of their
dependencies if I choose to install more
dependencies they'll show up here next
there's the folder called node
underscore modules this is where NPM put
all those modules from earlier you can
see there's a big chunk of stuff here
and there's one thing to bear in mind
about this folder probably don't want to
check all this into your project source
control NPM is supposed to manage these
for you
since I don't want anything from this
folder and my source control I'm going
to add it to a git ignore file so git
won't bother with them now the last
files index J s this is the entry point
for defining all your cloud functions
you will most definitely start writing
code here so I'll open that with V s
code to make this tutorial easy I'm just
going to uncomment the function here
that it created for me of course it's a
hello world sample let's walk through
what it does first it requires the
firebase functions module this gives me
an object stored in the variable called
functions you will use this a lot then
it exports a function called hello world
it's implemented using the functions
object from above and it's an HTTP type
function HTTP functions let you respond
to incoming web requests when a web
request occurs my function triggers with
a request and a response object these
are actually implemented using the no
module called Express so if you know
that you'll be right at home here then
in the body of this function I'm going
to send a string back to the web client
that response ends the function and
that's all there is to it
now deploy this function to my project
back at the command line I can use the
firebase CLI to deploy like this you
should know that it can take some time
to deploy the deployment speed should
improve in the future as the firebase
team continues working on it when the
deploy finishes it gives me a link to
the console for my project and also the
URL for the HTTP function that I just
created now if I copy that URL then
paste it into my browser it will invoke
the cloud function and I see the
response it sent I'll go back to the
code and change the Welcome message and
also add a log message which I'll find
later in the firebase console then I'll
deploy the function again just like last
time then reload the browser now I see
the new message to see where that log
message went I can go to the console for
my project select functions on the left
and choose to view logs for my
HelloWorld function and here I could see
my logged message and that's your first
cloud function but there's so much more
you can do with this as I mentioned
before so to learn more about cloud
functions for firebase be sure to read
the documentation follow our code lab
and check out our sample code and github
links are in the description below and
be sure to subscribe right here to the
firebase channel on YouTube to get
notified of new fire casts about cloud
functions and other firebase features
and I'll see you here next time
you
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