Firebase Series
Why Firebase?
Firebase is a Backend-as-a-Service from Google that you could use in building mobile and web apps. It’s not your app’s code itself, but it handles core features of your apps like user sign-in, database, notifications, saving media, analytics among others. In the procedure, you write less code/save time (rather than reinventing the wheel), focus more on building your application, and enjoy all the benefits of the Google Cloud Platform from your Firebase project. We chose Firebase because it is easy to use, quick to learn, and is incentive-based (one can share links of what they had deployed). We aimed at making the workshops short and every Friday we had a workshop. The Firebase Series as a whole also aimed at familiarizing the community members with the Firebase Console and the firebase deploy command.
Firebase Intro — Friday 18th Sep
The introduction to Firebase session by Ephraim Umunnakwe was more of a demo or showcase of using Firebase than explaining what Firebase is. He showcased/explained Hosting, Authentication, Firestore, and Storage one after the other. The event took place over Google Meet.
During the event, he created a Firebase project, and at that point, the project-id.web.app had no website in it and attendees testified. He deployed a simple site with the firebase deploy command and attendees checked and were surprised. He then redeployed again but this time the code now had a sign-in with Google feature. The attendees signed in with their Google accounts and Ephraim showed the users (under Authentication in the Firebase Console) of the Firebase project he had just created and all could see all those who had signed in. He again deployed but this time, the website had a chatbox whose messages synced in real-time with Cloud Firestore. Attendees dropped messages in the chatbox. He showed the Firestore section of the Firebase console and all could see as messages were being created and appearing in the console. The same was done for Cloud Storage as pictures were shared on the chatbox.
Ephraim’s secret was in using a GitHub repo that was prepared for the event. The repo had 4 git branches (hosting, auth, firestore, storage), aside from main that cumulatively had code specific to a feature being deployed. All he did was check out to each branch locally and run firebase deploy. The Github repo is at https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/firebase-intro
Know more about other things that happened at the event at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m4ghep/
Firebase Web Codelab — 25th Sep
During the weeks, we had short classes in the Whatsapp Group where various persons taught different things that helped the Friday workshops. We had classes on what applications, frontend, backend, servers, and clients were. There was also great support among community members helping each other where they could, especially to those that had problems using various technologies, not just Firebase.
To get the community members started, we organized a workshop around the Firebase Web Codelab. The workshop instructions were already in the codelab and all we had to do was follow and guide. The first workshop took place over Google Meet. Hilary anchored the workshop’s demo. He carried out the codelab step-by-step for others to follow along.
Know more about the First Codelab at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m8xfh4/
Firebase Web Codelab 2–2nd Oct
The community members gave feedback. Most complained that they could not keep to Google Meet because it was data-intensive and were not available in the afternoon (by 3 pm WAT). Not just that, the turn up for the codelab was low and the community members wanted to partake in the workshops. We organized the codelab a second time, but this time around in Whatsapp directly so that they could follow up even when not live. We originally intended to have the Firebase Series for just a month, that is 4 Fridays, but doubling the Firebase Web codelab made it 5.
Know more about the Second Codelab at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m6c35e/
Build your Portfolio Website for FREE — 9th Oct
Head over to practical gains. This time around we wanted relevant websites and not just the Firechat deployed from the Firebase Web Codelab. The simplest model of a portfolio we thought of was headshot image, name, bio, social media links, and gallery. We left it to others to modify as they wanted and we used GitHub to provide the sample and to outline the instructions. Check out https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/portfolio
Few of the persons that followed the portfolio workshop permitted me to share their deployments in this story, so here are their names and links.
* Silas Roneto — silasroneto.web.app
* Ephraim Ummunakwe — fir-funai.web.app
* Vincent Abba — myportfolio-354d1.web.app
* Obumuneme Nwabude (I also took part you know 😎) — obumnwabude.web.app
Know more of what happened during the portfolio building at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mjgxev/
Build MyNotes app with Firestore — 16th Oct
Cloud Firestore is a NoSQL document database, accessible from the frontend directly or mobile apps. No need for a server setup to read or write from the database. Ifeanyi taught about databases during the week and on Friday, members carried out the workshop. There was no authentication in the deployed MyNotes, the aim was just to use Firestore and explain Create, Read, Update and Delete operations over Documents and Collections in Firestore. There was definitely great support/assistance during deployment by members from the Whatsapp group too. The instructions are outline at https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/mynotes
Know more of what happened during the building MyNotes at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mgffeb/
There is more to Firebase than we could do in a once-a-week, 5-week series, but for sure our aim was achieved. Our community members can now explain what Firebase is and they know the power of the firebase deploy command. We consequently had quizzes (with prizes) about Firebase, applications, and databases to make learning fun.
The best part of this story is the participation of community members. Their active participation is the community’s fuel. Those who did not have computers to use, used the Termux app, on their phones, to carry out Firebase steps that needed to be run on a terminal. Yes, this was stressful, but they really wanted to learn, and they went this far to be sure they learned all they could during the series. This Firebase Series also gave the tutors, an opportunity to teach. It was during the series that Ephraim, Hilary, and Ifeanyi got their first opportunity to be on stage. They were delighted to have been exposed to such an experience.
My take-home
Feedback is invaluable. Adapting to it is priceless. Community participation and performance grew when we switched from Google Meet to Whatsapp and repeated the Firebase Web Codelab. And such an increase for such is what any lead will want.
Next steps
#EndSARS came around. We had a halt in activities but that paved way to a great speaker session we had: “Learning Opportunities in Digital”
Read on Learning Opportunities …
