Real World Use Cases for Firestore

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Introduction

Firestore is a NoSQL document database that offers a flexible, scalable solution for storing and syncing data across devices and servers. It’s a powerful tool that can be used in a variety of software projects, from simple apps to complex systems.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some real world use cases for Firestore, and see how it can be integrated into a software project.

Use Case 1: User Profiles

One common use case for Firestore is storing user profiles and other related data. For example, imagine we’re building a social networking app, and we want to store user profiles, friends lists, and other data.

We could set up a Firestore collection called users, and store each user’s data as a document within that collection. Here’s an example of how we might create a user document:

db.collection("users").doc("user123").set({
    name: "John Smith",
    age: 30,
    friends: ["user456", "user789"]
});

We can then use the users collection to query for specific users, or to get a list of all users. For example, here’s how we might get a list of all users with a given name:

db.collection("users").where("name", "==", "John Smith").get()
    .then(snapshot => {
        snapshot.forEach(doc => {
            console.log(doc.id, "=>", doc.data());
        });
    })
    .catch(err => {
        console.log("Error getting documents", err);
    });

Use Case 2: Real-Time Chat

Another common use case for Firestore is building real-time chat applications. With Firestore, it’s easy to set up a chat system that allows users to send and receive messages in real time.

To build a chat system, we can set up a Firestore collection called messages, and store each message as a document within that collection. Here’s an example of how we might send a message:

db.collection("messages").add({
    sender: "user123",
    text: "Hello, how are you?",
    timestamp: new Date()
});

We can then use the messages collection to query for messages, and display them in the chat interface. For example, here’s how we might get the most recent 100 messages:

db.collection("messages")
    .orderBy("timestamp", "desc")
    .limit(100)
    .get()
    .then(snapshot => {
        snapshot.forEach(doc => {
            console.log(doc.id, "=>", doc.data());
        });
    })
    .catch(err => {
        console.log("Error getting documents", err);
    });

Use Case 3: E-Commerce

Firestore can also be used in e-commerce projects, for storing product data and customer orders. For example, imagine we’re building an online store that sells clothing and accessories.

We could set up a Firestore collection called products, and store each product as a document within that collection. Here’s an example of how we might create a product document:

db.collection("products").doc("product123").set({
    name: "Red T-Shirt",
    price: 25.99,
    categories: ["men's clothing", "t-shirts"],
    imageUrl: "https://example.com/red-t-shirt.jpg"
});

To store customer orders, we could set up a separate Firestore collection called orders. Each order document could contain information about the customer, the products they purchased, and the order total. Here’s an example of how we might create an order document:

db.collection("orders").add({
    customer: "user123",
    products: [{
        id: "product123",
        name: "Red T-Shirt",
        price: 25.99,
        quantity: 1
    }, {
        id: "product456",
        name: "Blue Jeans",
        price: 49.99,
        quantity: 2
    }],
    total: 125.95,
    date: new Date()
});

We can then use the orders collection to query for specific orders, or to get a list of all orders. For example, here’s how we might get a list of all orders placed by a given customer:

db.collection("orders").where("customer", "==", "user123").get()
    .then(snapshot => {
        snapshot.forEach(doc => {
            console.log(doc.id, "=>", doc.data());
        });
    })
    .catch(err => {
        console.log("Error getting documents", err);
    });

Conclusion

Firestore is a versatile NoSQL database that can be used in a variety of software projects. Whether you’re building a social networking app, a real-time chat system, or an e-commerce platform, Firestore has you covered.