Chapter 1 - Introduction to Firebase

In this chapter we are going to achieve basic knowledge of the Firebase, with it different types and how it can replace SQL database.

Firebase is a NoSQL document database that lets you easily store, sync, and query data for your mobile and web apps - at global scale. Structure your data easily with collections and documents. Build hierarchies to store related data and easily retrieve the data you need using expressive queries. All queries scale with the size of your result set (note: not your data set), so your app is ready to scale from day one.

MySQL  >  Databases  > Tables >  Columns/Rows

Cloud Firestore  > Collections  >  Documents > ...

Now, above return is Cloud Firestore. Not to confuse here. It is one of type of Firebase. Firebase has two types of database, one is Realtime Database and another one is Cloud Firestore. Now again don't be confused with the name Realtime i.e this is the realtime database. Both are same but the Realtime is older one and Firestore is the new updated version. And we would also gonna use the Firestore as it is the future and google also recommends it for new projects. The Realtime database stores the data as one large tree in JSON while Firestore is collections of documents.

Realtime

Firestore

Now the main usage is SDK it provides for different platform. For Android, its easy to have the realtime updates across the devices. Our requirement stands for PHP. As you know PHP is server side language, so you cannot have the realtime data SDK. The web SDK is available for Javascript. You can use this where you have to show realtime data. Now let us know how we will implement this in PHP. So we have to use the admin SDK. Don't get confused, it just full access to the Firebase. You will become more clear once go through the next chapters. 

Hope you like this chapter and are excited for the upcoming chapters. Please let us your thoughts in the comment sections.