I’m glad you’re interested in exploring Firebase with Python. Firebase is essentially a NoSQL cloud database that helps you build, improve, and grow your app. Python, on the other hand, is a high-level, general-purpose programming language known for its code readability and simplified syntax.
# Required Libraries import firebase_admin from firebase_admin import credentials from firebase_admin import firestore
Firebase doesn’t directly support Python in its SDK officially but can be accessed by using Firestore which is a flexible, scalable database for mobile, web and server development from Firebase and Google Cloud Platform.
To initiate firebase for use in Python, you will need to have a private key file for Firebase service account. It can be generated in the Firebase Console.
Initiate Firebase in Python
cred = credentials.Certificate("<path to your service account json file>")
firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred)
Document Creation in Python Firebase
Documents in Firestore are similar to JSON with more data types and are stored in Collections, comparable to tables in SQL. Now, let’s create a collection and a document.
db = firestore.client()
doc_ref = db.collection('users').document('usr1')
doc_ref.set({
'first': 'Ada',
'last': 'Lovelace',
'born': 1815
})
Fetch Data from Firebase in Python
To fetch data from Firestore, we will use the .get() function on a document reference.
doc_ref = db.collection('users').document('usr1')
doc = doc_ref.get()
print('Document data:{}'.format(doc.to_dict()))
Error Handling in Python Firebase
When working with external databases like Firebase, exceptions or errors are commonly encountered. It’s a good practice to handle these exceptions to avoid abrupt termination of the program.
try:
doc = doc_ref.get()
print('Document data:{}'.format(doc.to_dict()))
except google.cloud.exceptions.NotFound:
print('No such document!')
Configuring Python with Firebase for Dynamic Web Applications
Firebase can be used with Python to create dynamic web applications, by leveraging Firestore’s real-time data synchronization with automatic, multi-region data replication. This makes it incredibly scalable for web applications that need to push real-time updates to any number of clients.
Using Python-Firebase for Authentication
Firebase provides a full set of authentication options, ranging from anonymous, email-password, Facebook, Google, Github among others. This guarantees a seamless and secure user experience, regardless of the platform or location.
In conclusion, the combination of Firebase and Python provides an efficient and effective way to build and scale applications. Experiment, explore and you might find that Python and Firebase could be the pivotal tools in realizing your application ideas.
