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Joe
Joe

Posted on

Aahh Firebase

Many developers around the web and mobile have probably tried this BAAS thing called "firebase". Also many have said that it's nice, easy, it's developer focus yada, yada, yada... A lot of very optimistic feedback.

So here is my one takeaway/feedback after using firebase for 2 months.

Firebase is painful!

They have this thing called data denormalization which is a fancy term for duplicating your data.

So I did that. But the painful part comes when you need to keep your data consistent across collections & subcollections.

Look, I'm relatively new to firebase and I'm dying to find a better solution to this tedious process of updating each document in every collection & subcollection affected.

I've been hanging around StackOverflow for hours and found some workarounds like batch & transactions but I still feel unsatisfied with these types of solutions.

If you're planning to use firebase for your future apps... Why? And if you're already using firebase... Why?

If we're sharing the same pain. I would love to know if you have found a way around it or if you've just stopped using firebase as you've learned helplessness.

Top comments (2)

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seanmclem profile image
Seanmclem

is this a general concern with noSQL and non-relational DBs? Doesn't seem specific to Firebase. You can emulate a relational DB by using relation tables.

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oieeaaaa profile image
Joe

I'm not entirely sure if this issue is also apparent to noSQL devs. I only want to address this issue as a result of my frustration. lol

As I said, I'm relatively new to firebase and I've only been using it for < 2/mos. I'm also curious if there is a better workaround for this that adept firebasers know.

ps:
Wait... Does relation tables exist in firebase databases? (I haven't heard of that yet)