Setting Up Local Firebase for Development

Install Firebase Emulator on Local PC

• Install Java version 1.8 or higher

• Install Node JS version 7.8.0 or higher

• Install Firebase CLI tools with npm (version 8.4.1 or higher)

  # install firebase CLI tools
  $ npm i -g firebase-tools
  
  # Check the version of the tools. If your version is older, upgrade the tools by issuing the same "npm" command above.
  $ firebase --version
  
  # Check available commands.
  $ firebase help
  
  # List all your firebase projects
  $ firebase projects:list
  

• Sign in with your Google account. If you don’t have one, sign-up here
• Create a Firebase web app project online via the Firebase console
  • Add a new project
  • Set up default resource location (e.g. asia-southeast2). List of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Resource Locations
  • Add a Firestore database to the project.
    • Choose “Start in test mode” for now.

Create Local Firebase Project

Run the following commands on a git bash terminal

# Create a new folder for the project
$ mkdir backend_firebase_rest
$ cd backend_firebase_rest

# Initialize the directory as a firebase project
# Choose these features to setup for this project:  Firestore, Function, Emulators
# On selecting a default Firebase project:
#     - Choose an existing project (and choose the project that you created before, in the previous steps)
#     - Accept the default values for other settings
# On Emulators features setup:
#     - Choose Functions and Firestore
#     - Accept the default values for other settings
#     - Would you like to download the emulators now? Choose Yes

$ firebase init

Note: If Firebase CLI does not work on external git bash terminal, switch to Powershell or cmd, or use integrated terminal in VSCode

Run Firebase Emulators

# To run the emulators
# The emulator UI should be available at http://localhost:4000

$ firebase emulators:start