Understanding firebase JSON database
suggest changeBefore we get our hands dirty with code, I feel it is necessary to understand how data is stored in firebase. Unlike relational databases, firebase stores data in JSON format. Think of each row in a relational database as a JSON object (which is basically unordered key-value pair). So the column name becomes key and the value stored in that column for one particular row is the value. This way the entire row is represented as a JSON object and a list of these represent an entire database table. The immediate benefit that I see for this is schema modification becomes much more cheaper operation compared to old RDBMS. It is easier to add a couple of more attributes to a JSON than altering a table structure.
here is a sample JSON to show how data is stored in firebase:
{
"user_base" : {
"342343" : {
"email" : "[email protected]",
"authToken" : "some string",
"name" : "Kaushal",
"phone" : "+919916xxxxxx",
"serviceProviderId" : "firebase",
"signInServiceType" : "google",
},
"354895" : {
"email" : "[email protected]",
"authToken" : "some string",
"name" : "devil",
"phone" : "+919685xxxxxx",
"serviceProviderId" : "firebase",
"signInServiceType" : "github"
},
"371298" : {
"email" : "[email protected]",
"authToken" : "I am batman",
"name" : "Bruce Wayne",
"phone" : "+14085xxxxxx",
"serviceProviderId" : "firebase",
"signInServiceType" : "shield"
}
},
"user_prefs": {
"key1":{
"data": "for key one"
},
"key2":{
"data": "for key two"
},
"key3":{
"data": "for key three"
}
},
//other structures
}
This clearly shows how data that we used to store in relational databases can be stored in JSON format. Next let’s see how to read this data in android devices.