Chapter 39
Using Firebase Database and Storage to Build an Instagram-like App

First things first, I highly recommend you to read the previous two chapters if you haven't done so. Even though most of the chapters are independent, this chapter is tightly related to the other two Firebase chapters.

Assuming you have done that, you should understand how to use Firebase for user authentication. This is just one of the many features of the mobile development platform. In this chapter, we will explore two popular features of Firebase: Database and Storage. Again, I will walk you through with a project demo. We will build a simple version of Instagram with a public image feed.

Figure 39.1. The Instagram-like Demo App
Figure 39.1. The Instagram-like Demo App

Figure 39.1 shows the demo app. As an app user, you can publish photos to the public feed. At the same time, you can view photos uploaded by other users. It is pretty much the same as what Instagram does but we strip off some of the features such as followers.

By building this Instagram-like app, you will learn a ton of new things:

  • How to create an Instagram-like camera UI using a third-party library called ImagePicker
  • How to use Firebase Database to save data (e.g. post information) and structure the JSON data in Firebase database
  • How to use Firebase Storage to store images
  • How to work with Firebase Database and Storage for data upload and download
  • How to limit the number of records retrieved from Firebase Database
  • How to implement infinite scrolling in table views

Cool, right? Let's get started.

To continue reading and access the full version of the book, please get the full copy here. You will also be able to access the full source code of the project.

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