Cloud-hosted database
NoSQL database; data is stored as JSON
Changes made to the database are automatically synchronized for any other computer/phone (i.e. client) that is viewing data from the database
Firestore database documentation can be found here
Simple data is easy to store in documents, which are very similar to JSON
Complex, hierarchical data is easier to organize at scale, using sub collections within documents
Requires less denormalization and data flattening.
data is stored in “documents” that contain fields mapping to values.
documents are stored in collections, which are containers for your documents that you can use to organize your data and build queries
Firebase’s Firestore database is structured like a JSON tree (think root and branches)
Data stored in a JSON tree is hierarchical (parent/child)
Properties names in the JSON tree can be used as keys (i.e. unique identifiers)
{
"users": {
"alovelace": {
"name": "Ada Lovelace",
"contacts": { "ghopper": true },
},
"ghopper": { ... },
"eclarke": { ... }
}
}
In the example above, we have a object that contains a list of users. Each user is represented as an object that has a property name or key. alovelace is the key that is tied to the object containing this user’s name and contacts.