A Tutorial on Firebase Hosting

If you are looking to host your NextGen web app safely, Firebase from Google can put you at ease by providing fast, reliable, and secure static hosting for your web app. Offering production-grade web content hosting, Google Firebase enables you to effortlessly deploy web apps and static web page content and connect to a CDN (content-delivery network) with a single command.

Furthermore, with Firebase as an all-in-one hosting solution, you are exempt from sizing up various available cloud-based hosting service providers.

The prerequisites you need to do to get started with Firebase hosting are:

• The latest version of Node.js.
• An uninterrupted Data connection.
• A Google Firebase account

Features That Make Firebase a Reliable Choice

Content Security

Firebase hosting is served over a secure connection. It has a built-in SSL, which requires no further configuration, ensuring that content is always delivered with uncompromised security standards at any point intime.

Speedy Content Delivery

Since each file you upload is on SSDs, cached at CDN edges, you can be sure your web app content is delivered fast to users around the world.

Quick Deployment

Firebase comes with a CLI, which deploys your app in a few seconds. With the CLI, you can easily upload your files from a local directory to the hosting server and add deployment targets into your build process.

One-Click Roll Backs

Any mistakes or error made during the hosting process is reversable, as Firebase Hosting enables you to manage the full version and release with one-click rollbacks.

How Does it Work?

Built with the idea of modern web development, Firebase makes deploying a simple landing page or a scalable and complex web app quite simple. Successful hosting gives your app the feel-good features, defined infrastructure, and incredible tools designed to manage static websites.

With Firebase CLI, you are able to deploy files from local directory to hosting server that has SSL configuration on global CDN. The project is given a sub-domain of firebaseapp.com. Its lightweight configuration options enable you to build sophisticated progressive web apps. Developers can easily rewrite URLs or set-up custom headers.

When a site is ready for production, you can connect your own domain name to Google Firebase Hosting and also get an SSL certificate for enhanced content security.

Why Leverage Firebase Hosting?

For business-grade apps, it is important to choose a robust, scalable, and flexible framework for web application development. Firebase promises an integrated platform for dynamic mobile apps. Some of its pros are:

1. Competitive Analytics

Google Firebase comes with a free analytics dashboard that has innovative qualities and the capacity to report up to as many as 500 event types. Due to its ability to provide you with crystal clear insights for understanding user behavior, it is easy to optimize your application for better performance, scalability, and personalization. Some of the crucial features of Firebase analytics are:

• Streamlined segmentation of users.
• Unlimited reporting.
• Integration with other essential services.

2. High-Quality and Interactive Applications

With Firebase, developers can enjoy ample space to create unique, interactive, and high-quality apps using its incredible features and functions. Some of the remarkable, innovative features of Google Firebase are:

• Authentication.
• Crash reporting.
• Storage and data syncing.
• Remote configuring.
• Real-time database.
• Cloud messaging.
• Test Lab.

With these features, you can store, sync, add, and integrate important data in real-time, which in turn makes a user's experience even more gratifying.

3. App Marketing Feature: Invites

After developing your business-focused app, you can walk an extra mile to compel users to consider and install your app. Firebase contains a feature called "invites," which enables word-of-mouth advertising. Invites empower your marketing efforts by sending personalized invitations messages and email to prospects and existing clients.

4. Better User engagement

You definitely want your app to do well and impress users with its scalable features and secure usage. Some of the built-in features of Google Firebase that satisfy this purpose for you are:

• App indexing.
• Dynamic links.
• Real-time Notifications.

Getting Started

Install the Firebase CLI

To install Firebase hosting, the CLI requires you to first install Node.js (version 5.10.0 or greater) and npm. To install them both, follow the instructions given on https://nodejs.org/.

After getting Node.js and npm installed, you can go ahead and install the Firebase CLI via npm:

 npm install -g firebase-tools

Then, you can re-run the above command in order to update to the latest version.

Initialize Your App

If you have your Firebase app ready to deploy, you can go inside the project directory to run the command:

 firebase init

This action creates a firebase.json settings file in the root of your project directory.

Add a File

After initializing your application, you will be asked to use the directory as the public root by default. This is helpful when you don’t have a valid index.html file in your public root directory.

Deploy Your Website

At this stage, you are able to deploy your website, which you can do by running:

 firebase deploy 

In the end, you will see your app deployed at the domain <YOUR-FIREBASE-APP>.firebaseapp.com.

Manage and Rollback Deploys

From the Hosting panel in the Firebase Console, you can see a full history of your deploys. To roll back to a previous deploy, hover over its entry in the list, click the overflow menu icon, and then click Rollback.

Now, your app is ready to share with the world! Next up, check out how to customize hosting behavior, connect a custom domain, or take a look at the full documentation for the Firebase CLI.

Further Reading

• How to Integrate React Application Using Firebase.
• Firebase vs. MongoDB: Which Database to Use for Your App Development.
• Firebase Authentication With the Firebase 3.0 SDK and Auth0 Integration.