FR: Instructions for Adding Firebase to macOS App

[cliftonlabrum]

I recently installed Firebase in a macOS+iOS app in Xcode manually (I didn't use CocoaPods). I followed the instructions in the Readme that are included in the frameworks download that Google provides here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/ios/setup?authuser=1#frameworks

I did everything the same during the installation between iOS and macOS (linking the frameworks, other linker flags, etc.).

I can successfully build my iOS app with Firebase and can write data to the server. Yay.

But when I attempt to build my macOS app, I get 238 build errors and warnings. 😱 I have attached a few examples.

There seems to be little point in going in and trying to address each and every one. Clearly I did something wrong.

Are there macOS installation instructions somewhere to assist me in my plight? I'm desperately hoping to get Firebase to work for macOS and iOS together. 🙂Thanks!

[paulb777]

@cliftonlabrum Thanks for the report. Sorry, we don't have instructions or provide binaries for manual installation of macOS. Only CocoaPods installations are currently available for macOS and tvOS.

[cliftonlabrum]

Thanks for your quick reply. So in order to get iOS and macOS in Cocoapods, would I have to do something like this where I grab everything for iOS, but have to cherry pick the specific pods for macOS?

target :ios do
  pod 'Firebase/Core'
end

target :osx do
  pod 'FirebaseCore', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
  pod 'FirebaseAuth', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
  pod 'FirebaseDatabase', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
  pod 'FirebaseStorage', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
end

Or, if I want full parity between iOS and macOS, could I just install the 4 pods supported by macOS for both?

pod 'FirebaseCore', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
pod 'FirebaseAuth', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
pod 'FirebaseDatabase', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'
pod 'FirebaseStorage', :git => 'https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git', :branch => 'master'

Thank you!

[paulb777]

You could just install the four pods for both. The difference would be that you won't get FirebaseAnalytics which is only available for iOS and gets installed with Firebase/Core.

I would recommend only specifying the following to get the latest released versions instead of the very latest sources:

pod 'FirebaseCore'
pod 'FirebaseAuth'
pod 'FirebaseDatabase'
pod 'FirebaseStorage'

[cliftonlabrum]

Perfect, thank you!

[Jaycyn]

I am encountering a macOS issue in that the project compiles and Authentication is working but I am not able to connect to the database. I used the pod setup shown in a prior comment. I've got the app added to the Firebase project and GoogleService-Info correct. This line runs when a button is clicked in the UI

let fbRef = Database.database().reference()

but the result is that fbRef is not a valid value

fbRef DatabaseReference 0x0000000000000000

oh - the in the AppDelegate I have this

    func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) {
        FirebaseApp.configure()
    }

Is there something else needed to use Firebase on macOS?

[paulb777]

@visdyn It might be #2248

[Jaycyn]

And that is 100% the correct answer. That one change fixed it. I was searching the issues for macOS in title. Thanks for the lightning fast response.

[rawmean]

You could just install the four pods for both. The difference would be that you won't get FirebaseAnalytics which is only available for iOS and gets installed with Firebase/Core.

I would recommend only specifying the following to get the latest released versions instead of the very latest sources:

pod 'FirebaseCore'
pod 'FirebaseAuth'
pod 'FirebaseDatabase'
pod 'FirebaseStorage'

Given that FirebaseAnalytics is not supported for macOS, how can I exclude it when building for macOS? As you pointed out, FirebaseAnalytics gets installed automatically when FirebaseCore is installed.

[paulb777]

Note the difference between Firebase/Core and FirebaseCore. The first is a subspec of the Firebase pod that depends on FirebaseAnalytics. The second is only the FirebaseCore pod. Only the latter should be used for macOS.

[rawmean]

Note the difference between Firebase/Core and FirebaseCore. The first is a subspec of the Firebase pod that depends on FirebaseAnalytics. The second is only the FirebaseCore pod. Only the latter should be used for macOS.

Solved! Thank you so much. I spent an entire day trying to fix this.

[loucimj]

pod 'FirebaseCore' pod 'FirebaseAuth' pod 'FirebaseDatabase' pod 'FirebaseStorage'

I've updated to the latest versions of those libs and I can't get to compile a previously working code. It throws the following error: FIRAuthKeychainServices.h' file not found

Any hint of what is going on here?

Here is my podfile:

# Uncomment the next line to define a global platform for your project
platform :osx, '10.13'

target 'QontactAdmin' do
  # Comment the next line if you're not using Swift and don't want to use dynamic frameworks
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'FirebaseCore'
  pod 'FirebaseAuth'
  pod 'FirebaseDatabase'
  pod 'FirebaseStorage'

  # Pods for QontactAdmin

  target 'QontactAdminTests' do
    inherit! :search_paths
    # Pods for testing

  end

end

[paulb777]

@loucimj Try cleaning the project and DerivedData

[Jaycyn]

I just now updated from 6.0 to 6.1 and it compiled and worked correctly with no error. My podfile is identical to yours.

[loucimj]

@loucimj Try cleaning the project and DerivedData

I've cleaned the project and the error persisted. The trick was to erase the DerivedData folder. Thanks!!

[rawmean]

The iOS app works perfectly and can access the firebase database, but the Catalyst app gives the following error:

6.11.0 - [Firebase/Database][I-RDB038012] Listener at /my_database/path failed: permission_denied

I have created an app in firebase console with the same bundleID of the Catalyst app and downloaded the and included the GoogleService-info.plist in the project (replaced the one for the iOS app).

my PodFile:

# Uncomment this line to define a global platform for your project
platform :ios, '11.0'
# Uncomment this line if you're using Swift

def reusepods
end

target 'MyTargerName' do
    use_frameworks!
#    pod 'Firebase/Core'
    pod 'FirebaseCore'
    pod 'Firebase/Database'
    pod 'Firebase/Auth'
    pod 'Charts'
    pod 'EMAlertController'    
end

[paulb777]

@rawmean Thanks for the report. Please create a new issue to track the Catalyst specific problem.