Introduction

Since you are here, you probably heard or worked with Firebase, and firestore is one of their Eco-system. In today's article, we'll learn how to: add, edit, remove and fetch data from firestore collections

Requisites

Basic understanding with composer
Basic understanding with Laravel

Setting up Firebase Project

First thing you would probably do, is creating a new Firebase project, and if you don't know how, you may go to get Firebase instruction from Google official documentation.

Installing Firebase package

We'll use kreait/laravel-firebase package.

In your app, require the above package by

1composer require kreait/laravel-firebase

After that, you may add the package's service provider:

 1<?php
 2// config/app.php
 3return [
 4    // ...
 5    'providers' => [
 6        // ...
 7        Kreait\Laravel\Firebase\ServiceProvider::class
 8    ]
 9    // ...
10];

Package Configuration

You need to add the Firebase credentials in order to use the package

1# relative or full path to the Service Account JSON file
2FIREBASE_CREDENTIALS=
3# You can find the database URL for your project at
4# https://console.firebase.google.com/project/_/database
5FIREBASE_DATABASE_URL=https://<your-project>.firebaseio.com

If you want to know more, take a look at the package instructions

In order to work with firestore features, you need to install grpc extension

CRUD Operations

After you set up all above requirements. Now let's start to have some fun 😃

First, Create a collection in firestore cloud

Fetch Documents from the collection

In order to fetch a specific collection, do the following

 1public function index()
 2{
 3    $data = app('firebase.firestore')
 4                ->database()
 5                ->collection('categories')
 6                ->documents();
 7 
 8    if ($data->isEmpty()) {
 9        return collect();
10    }
11 
12    $categories = collect($data->rows());
13 
14    return view('categories.index', [
15        'categories' => $categories,
16    ]);
17}

Here we are fetching the items from a categories collection (replace the categories with any collection you created)

In order to fetch the data after you loop through the collection, do the following:

1@foreach($categories as $category)
2    <!--
3        The `key` here is the key inside
4        your collection, it may be `id`, `name`... etc
5    -->
6    {{ $category->resource->data()['key']}}
7@endforeach

Create New Document

In order to create an document inside the collection, do the following

 1public function store(CategoryRequest $request)
 2{
 3    $firestore = app('firebase.firestore')
 4                    ->database()
 5                    ->collection('categories')
 6                    ->newDocument();
 7 
 8    $firestore->set($request->validated());
 9 
10    // Redirect, Success message...
11}

In this example, we're validating the requested data first, through CategoryResource, then we store it inside the firestore collection.

Edit Existing Document

To edit an existing document, simply, you need to fetch the document ID, and override the data. Here's an example:

 1public function update(CategoryRequest $request)
 2{
 3    $firestore = app('firebase.firestore')
 4                    ->database()
 5                    ->collection('categories')
 6                    ->document('WpVqG3LEOBdXzb2vzSBt');
 7 
 8    $firestore->set($request->validated);
 9 
10    // Redirect, success message...
11}

Each created document has a unique ID, and here, we are specifying the collection, then the document. After that, we override the existing data.

Note: Firestore is flixible on writing documents,if you for example have/has: id,name, and when you edit, you update just the id. The name will be removed automatically.

Delete Document

Deleting document is like editing it, get the collection/document then delete.

Here's an example:

1app('firebase.firestore')
2        ->database()
3        ->collection('categories')
4        ->document('WpVqG3LEOBdXzb2vzSBt')
5        ->delete();

Our journey end up here, and you are all set to be working with firestore API, if you like to optimize/refactor code (like me), take a look at the bellow sections.

Firestore Repository

When I'm developing a web app, I like to keep most of the things under control, and avoiding the DRY principle. So, when you are about to edit/add a feature or upgrade your codebase in the future, you'll modify one file, instead of modifying 20+ files.

In order to use these methods easily inside your app, without repetition, I created a repository, does something like this

1public function index(FirestoreRepository $firestore)
2{
3    $categories = $firestore->fetch('categories');
4 
5    // ...
6}

Creating the Interface

First you need to create an interface called Firestore (or any name you prefer), inside app/Services/Firebase/Contracts (or any structure you prefer really!).

 1<?php
 2 
 3namespace App\Services\Firebase\Firestore\Contracts;
 4 
 5use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
 6 
 7interface FireStore
 8{
 9    /**
10     * Create New Collection Item
11     *
12     * @var string $collection
13     * @var array $data
14     *
15     * @return array
16     */
17    public function create(string $collection, array $data): array;
18 
19    /**
20     * Fetch Existing Collection Items
21     *
22     * @var string $collection
23     * @return Illuminate\Support\Collection
24     */
25    public function fetch(string $collection): Collection;
26 
27    /**
28     * Edit Existing Item in a collection
29     *
30     * @var string $collection
31     * @var string $document
32     * @var array $data
33     *
34     * @return array
35     */
36    public function edit(string $collection, string $document, array $data): array;
37 
38    /**
39     * Delete Existing Collection
40     *
41     * @var string $collection
42     * @var string $document
43     *
44     * @return void
45     */
46    public function destory(string $collection, string $document): void;
47}

The Firestore Class

After creating the interface, we need to create FirestoreRepository class, in order to use the methods. Here's the class

 1<?php
 2 
 3namespace App\Services\Firebase\Firestore;
 4 
 5use App\Services\Firebase\Firestore\Contracts\FireStore;
 6use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
 7 
 8final class FirestoreRepository implements FireStore
 9{
10    public function create(string $collection, array $data): array ...
11    {
12        $firestore = app('firebase.firestore')
13                        ->database()
14                        ->collection($collection)
15                        ->newDocument();
16 
17        return $firestore->set($data);
18    } 
19 
20    public function fetch(string $collection): Collection ...
21    {
22        $data = app('firebase.firestore')
23                    ->database()
24                    ->collection($collection)
25                    ->documents();
26 
27        if ($data->isEmpty()) {
28            return collect();
29        }
30 
31        return collect($data->rows());
32    } 
33 
34    public function edit(string $collection, string $document, array $data): array ...
35    {
36        $firestore = app('firebase.firestore')
37                        ->database()
38                        ->collection($collection)
39                        ->document($document);
40 
41        $document = $firestore->set($data);
42 
43        return $document;
44    } 
45 
46    public function destory(string $collection, string $document): void ...
47    {
48        app('firebase.firestore')
49                ->database()
50                ->collection($collection)
51                ->document($document)
52                ->delete();
53    } 
54}

Using The Class

After you create all of that, you are free to use the class as Dependency Injection class, and you can use this class in the construct method, or in the method directly

 1// ...
 2class CategoryController extends Controller
 3{
 4    /** 
 5    protected $firestore; 
 6 
 7    public function __construct(FirestoreRepository $firestore) 
 8    {
 9        $this->firestore = $firestore; 
10    }
11 
12    public function index()
13    {
14        $categories = $this->firestore->fetch('categories'); 
15        //...
16    }
17}

Or in a method like this

1// ...
2public function index(FirestoreRepository $firestore) 
3{
4    $categories = $firestore->fetch('categories'); 
5 
6    //...
7}

Conclusion

We learned in this article, about how to do a CRUD operation using Laravel and firestore API's, and if you enjoyed this article, please share it with others.

If you are interested in Laravel topics, or tech in general, make sure to follow me on Twitter for daily tips on web developments.

Don't forget to do something kind today.

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