To get the most out of this book

To master Firebase, you need to have fundamental knowledge of platforms such as iOS, web, and Android. The book mostly targets Android developers, and at the time of writing, the following assumptions were made for the reader:

1. How to install the latest version of Android Studio
2. Has Google official credentials for Firebase
3. An intermediate developer who can understand Java and Kotlin syntax
4. Little experience of CLI tools and Node.js syntax

The book also has a little for web developers if you are a beginner and want to explore how to host your website and you want to understand a little bit about writing Node.js code that can trigger an action. 

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packtpub.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-Firebase-for-Android-Development. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

 

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system."

A block of code is set as follows:

FirebaseUser user = FirebaseAuth.getInstance().getCurrentUser();
if (user != null) {
    // When User is signed in
} else {
    // When user is not signed in
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

myTrace = FirebasePerformance.getInstance().newTrace("packt_trace")
myTrace?.start()
val bundle = Bundle()
bundle.putString("oncreate", "created")
mFirebaseAnalytics?.logEvent(FirebaseAnalytics.Event.SELECT_CONTENT, bundle)
myTrace?.stop()

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

npm install -g firebase-tools

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.