Using Firebase, developers can add a realtime backend to their Ember app without setting up a server. Firebase's Ember library EmberFire integrates directly with Ember Data, so all of the data for your app is automatically persisted.
Tom Dale, one of the creators of Ember, explains:
With first-class support for Ember.js, Firebase developers can continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the browser by leaning on the strong architectural features of Ember that lead your app towards clean separation of concerns. TOM DALE, CO-CREATOR OF EMBERJS
Firebase's realtime data synchronization is a great fit with Ember's frontend philosophy. Using EmberFire, we can interact with Ember Data as we normally would, and our app's data will automatically be persisted. Adding EmberFire to your ember-cli app is simple.
In order to use EmberFire in our project, we can run the following in our ember-cli app's directory:
$ ember install emberfire@next
This will add Firebase to your package.json file and generate app/adapters/application.js for you with the following content:
// app/adapters/application.js
import FirestoreAdapter from 'emberfire/adapters/firestore';
export default FirestoreAdapter.extend({
// Uncomment the following lines to enable offline persistence and multi-tab support
// enablePersistence: true,
// persistenceSettings: { synchronizeTabs: true }
});If you prefer to use the Firebase Realtime Database, you can run the following command $ ember generate realtime-database-adapter.
We'll build a blogging app to demonstrate how to store and sync data with EmberFire. Full code for this app is available on GitHub.
First we need to add our Firebase configuration to our environment.js:
// config/environment.js
var ENV = {
firebase: {
apiKey: "xyz",
authDomain: "YOUR-FIREBASE-APP.firebaseapp.com",
databaseURL: "https://YOUR-FIREBASE-APP.firebaseio.com",
projectId: "YOUR-FIREBASE-APP",
storageBucket: "YOUR-FIREBASE-APP.appspot.com",
messagingSenderId: "00000000000"
}Get these values from the Firebase Console by clicking the [Add Firebase to your web app] button on the project overview page.
You are now set up to use Ember Data as you normally would.