Firebase iOS Open Source Development

See the three subsections for details about three different installation methods.

1. Standard pod install
2. Installing from the GitHub repo
3. Experimental Carthage

Standard pod install

Go to https://firebase.google.com/docs/ios/setup.

Installing from GitHub

For releases starting with 5.0.0, the source for each release is also deployed to CocoaPods master and available via standard CocoaPods Podfile syntax.

These instructions can be used to access the Firebase repo at other branches, tags, or commits.

Background

See the Podfile Syntax Reference for instructions and options about overriding pod source locations.

Accessing Firebase Source Snapshots

All of the official releases are tagged in this repo and available via CocoaPods. To access a local source snapshot or unreleased branch, use Podfile directives like the following:

To access FirebaseFirestore via a branch:

pod 'FirebaseCore', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
pod 'FirebaseFirestore', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'

To access FirebaseMessaging via a checked out version of the firebase-ios-sdk repo do:

pod 'FirebaseCore', :path => '/path/to/firebase-ios-sdk'
pod 'FirebaseMessaging', :path => '/path/to/firebase-ios-sdk'

Carthage (iOS only)

Instructions for the experimental Carthage distribution are at Carthage.

Rome

Instructions for installing binary frameworks via Rome are at Rome.

Follow the subsequent instructions to develop, debug, unit test, run integration tests, and try out reference samples:

$ git clone git@github.com:firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git
$ cd firebase-ios-sdk/Example
$ pod update
$ open Firebase.xcworkspace

Firestore and Functions have self contained Xcode projects. See Firestore/README.md and Functions/README.md.

Code Formatting

Travis will verify that any code changes are done in a style compliant way. Install clang-format and swiftformat. This command will get the right clang-format version:

brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/0743d748ba8b41eec074a0a787dc80219142c525/Formula/clang-format.rb

Running Unit Tests

Select a scheme and press Command-u to build a component and run its unit tests.

Running Sample Apps

In order to run the sample apps and integration tests, you'll need valid GoogleService-Info.plist files for those samples. The Firebase Xcode project contains dummy plist files without real values, but can be replaced with real plist files. To get your own GoogleService-Info.plist files:

1. Go to the Firebase Console
2. Create a new Firebase project, if you don't already have one
3. For each sample app you want to test, create a new Firebase app with the sample app's bundle identifier (e.g. com.google.Database-Example)
4. Download the resulting GoogleService-Info.plist and replace the appropriate dummy plist file (e.g. in Example/Database/App/);

Some sample apps like Firebase Messaging (Example/Messaging/App) require special Apple capabilities, and you will have to change the sample app to use a unique bundle identifier that you can control in your own Apple Developer account.

See the sections below for any special instructions for those components.

Firebase Auth

If you're doing specific Firebase Auth development, see the Auth Sample README for instructions about building and running the FirebaseAuth pod along with various samples and tests.

Firebase Database

To run the Database Integration tests, make your database authentication rules public.

Firebase Storage

To run the Storage Integration tests, follow the instructions in FIRStorageIntegrationTests.m.

Push Notifications

Push notifications can only be delivered to specially provisioned App IDs in the developer portal. In order to actually test receiving push notifications, you will need to:

1. Change the bundle identifier of the sample app to something you own in your Apple Developer account, and enable that App ID for push notifications.
2. You'll also need to upload your APNs Provider Authentication Key or certificate to the Firebase Console at Project Settings > Cloud Messaging > [Your Firebase App].
3. Ensure your iOS device is added to your Apple Developer portal as a test device.

iOS Simulator

The iOS Simulator cannot register for remote notifications, and will not receive push notifications. In order to receive push notifications, you'll have to follow the steps above and run the app on a physical device.

We've seen an amazing amount of interest and contributions to improve the Firebase SDKs, and we are very grateful! We'd like to empower as many developers as we can to be able to use Firebase and participate in the Firebase community.

macOS and tvOS

FirebaseAuth, FirebaseCore, FirebaseDatabase and FirebaseStorage now compile, run unit tests, and work on macOS and tvOS, thanks to contributions from the community. There are a few tweaks needed, like ensuring iOS-only, macOS-only, or tvOS-only code is correctly guarded with checks for TARGET_OS_IOS, TARGET_OS_OSX and TARGET_OS_TV.

For tvOS, checkout the Sample.

Keep in mind that macOS and tvOS are not officially supported by Firebase, and this repository is actively developed primarily for iOS. While we can catch basic unit test issues with Travis, there may be some changes where the SDK no longer works as expected on macOS or tvOS. If you encounter this, please file an issue.

For installation instructions, see above.

Note that the Firebase pod is not available for macOS and tvOS. Install a selection of the FirebaseAuth, FirebaseCore, FirebaseDatabase and FirebaseStorage CocoaPods.

See Roadmap for more about the Firebase iOS SDK Open Source plans and directions.