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v6.0.0 Release

Introducing React Native Firebase version 6.0.0, now featuring the full suite of Firebase products and packed full of features.

Please tag any GitHub issues regarding v6.0.0 with [v6] in the title.

This version is effectively a re-write with the goal of splitting every module into it's own package (simplifies maintenance for contributors and also installation for users) and additionally brings each Firebase module up to ~95+% testing coverage and 100% Firebase API Coverage.

Many of the manual native installation steps for Android & iOS have been removed and internally automated with most modules now just 'install and go'.

The new modules:

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Analytics
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App
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Cloud Functions
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Cloud Firestore
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Cloud Storage
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Cloud Messaging
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Crashlytics
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Dynamic Links
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In-app Messaging
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Instance ID
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ML
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Performance Monitoring
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Realtime Database
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Remote Config
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The following modules are currently migration only for now (migrated from v5 to v6 with minimal changes), what this means:

  • only some new work was done on them (e.g. migrating to v6 internals)
  • only some new tests added for them (but all existing tests pass)
  • flow types missing (but have TS types)

Where is the Notifications library?

Please see this issue for the latest on notifications.

Changelog

General Library Changes

  • [INTERNAL] Improved error codes & handling for all Firebase services;
    • Standardized native error to JS conversion
    • [DEVEX] Native promise rejection errors now contain additional properties to aid debugging
    • All React Native Firebase native methods should now always return an Error to JS - even if the Error occurred due to native code.
  • [BUGFIX] All native events are now queued natively until a JS listener is registered. This fixes several race conditions for events like onMessage, onNotification, onLink etc where the event would trigger before JS was ready.
  • [NEW][๐Ÿ”ฅ] In an effort to further reduce manual native code changes when integrating and configuring React Native Firebase; we have added support for configuring various Firebase services & features via a firebase.json file in your project root.
  • [NEW][ios] CocoaPods static framework support for all modules (you can use use_frameworks! without issues relating to this lib)
    • Note: Currently this has been disabled as use_frameworks! support in React Native was broken again in RN60. We'll re-enable in a future release for RN61.

App (app)

  • [NEW] Added appConfig & method support for setAutomaticDataCollectionEnabled & automaticResourceManagement
  • [NEW] Added app options support for gaTrackingId
  • [NEW] The [DEFAULT] Firebase app can now be safely initialized in JS, however this has some caveats;
    • Firebase services such as Performance Monitoring & Remote Config require the default app to be initialized through the plist/JSON file.
  • [BREAKING] Waiting for apps to initialize via .onReady() has been removed. initializeApp() now returns a promise to the same effect
  • [BREAKING] Trying to initialize the [DEFAULT] Firebase app in JS when it was already initialized natively will now throw an error (formerly warned)

AdMob

AdMob has undergone a full rewrite to keep up-to-date with the latest changes and APIs. The JavaScript API interface has been modified from v5 to provider a simpler, cleaner way to manage ads.

  • [NEW] A new AdsConsent helper has been added to handle user ads consent, required under GDPR regulations. See the documentation for more information.
  • [NEW] Global settings can be applied to AdMob via setRequestConfiguration.
    • maxAdContentRating, tagForChildDirectedTreatment & tagForUnderAgeOfConsent are now set a global configuration settings.
  • [NEW] RewardedAd interface used the new Google Mobile Ads SDK beta API. Rewarded ads can now be controlled from the user dashboard, supporting both video and interactive ads.
  • [NEW] Added support for requesting only non-personalized ads via the requestNonPersonalizedAdsOnly request options.
  • [NEW] Added support for custom network extras on ad requests via networkExtras.
    • The user reward is now pre-fetched when the ad is loaded.
  • [BREAKING] The API interface for interacting with AdMob has undergone a full re-write.
  • [BUGFIX] Ads can now work during React Native debugging.

App Invites (invites)

  • [BREAKING] this module has been deprecated by Firebase and now been removed, you should migrate to Dynamic Links.

Analytics (analytics)

  • [NEW] Added support for resetAnalyticsData()
  • [NEW] Added event specific methods for many built-in analytics events, e.g. logLevelStart, logSearch, logSignUp and many more, see the module reference documentation for the full list of methods added.
  • [INTERNAL] setUserProperties now iterates properties natively (formerly 1 native call per property)
  • [BREAKING] all analytics methods now return a Promise, rather than formerly being 'fire and forget'

Crashlytics (crashlytics)

Blog post announcement: [Firebase Crashlytics for React Native]

  • [NEW] JavaScript stack traces now automatically captured and parsed
    JavaScript stack trace preview
    JavaScript stack trace preview
  • [NEW] Optionally enable automatic reporting of JavaScript unhandled Promise rejections
  • [NEW] Added support for setUserName(userName: string)
  • [NEW] Added support for setUserEmail(userEmail: string)
  • [NEW] Added support for isCrashlyticsCollectionEnabled: boolean
  • [NEW][android] Added support for Crashlytics NDK reporting. This allows Crashlytics to capture Yoga related crashes generated from React Native.
  • [NEW][๐Ÿ”ฅ] Added firebase.json support for crashlytics_ndk_enabled, this toggles NDK support as mentioned above, defaults to true
  • [NEW][๐Ÿ”ฅ] Added firebase.json support for crashlytics_debug_enabled, this toggles Crashlytics native debug logging, defaults to false
  • [NEW][๐Ÿ”ฅ] Added firebase.json support for crashlytics_auto_collection_enabled, this toggles Crashlytics error reporting, this is useful for user opt-in first flows, e.g. set to false and when your user agrees to opt-in then call setCrashlyticsCollectionEnabled(true) in your app, defaults to true
  • [BUGFIX][android] crash() now correctly crashes without being caught by a React Native red box
  • [BREAKING] setBoolValue, setFloatValue, setIntValue & setStringValue have been removed and replaced with two new methods (the Crashlytics SDK converted all these into strings internally anyway):
    • setAttribute(key: string, value: string): Promise<null> - set a singular key value to show alongside any subsequent crash reports
    • setAttributes(values: { [key: string]: string }): Promise<null> - set multiple key values to show alongside any subsequent crash reports
  • [BREAKING] all methods except crash, log & recordError now return a Promise that resolves when complete
  • [BREAKING] recordError(code: number, message: string)'s function signature changed to recordError(error: Error) - now accepts a JS Error class instance
  • [BREAKING] setUserIdentifier() has been renamed to setUserId() to match analytics implementation
  • [BREAKING] enableCrashlyticsCollection()'s function signature changed to setCrashlyticsCollectionEnabled(enabled: boolean)
    • This can be used in all scenarios (formerly only able to use this when automatic initialization of Crashlytics was disabled)
    • Changes do not take effect until the next app startup
    • This persists between app restarts and only needs to be called once, can be used in conjunction with isCrashlyticsCollectionEnabled to reduce bridge startup traffic - though calling multiple times is still allowed

Cloud Firestore (firestore)

Cloud Firestore has undergone a complete overhaul of both JavaScript & native code, including a re-write of bridge serialization, support for new features & heavy test coverage.

  • [NEW] Added support for collection group queries (firestore().collectionGroup()).
  • [NEW] Added support for isEqual() across most classes.
  • [NEW] Added support for SetOptions.mergeFields (DocumentReference.set() / Transaction.set()).
  • [NEW] Added support for handling snapshot metadata via the includeMetadataChanges flag which can be passed to CollectionReference.onSnapshot() and QuerySnapshot.docChanges() to return additional results from query snapshot listeners.
  • [NEW] Cache size can now be set to unlimited using the CACHE_SIZE_UNLIMITED static when passed to firestore().settings() (also added in v5.4).
  • [BUGFIX] Remove Metro circular reference warnings.
  • [BUGFIX] DocumentReference and CollectionReference snapshot observers now correctly handle the same arguments as the Web SDK.
  • [BUGFIX] Validate transaction gets must also have a write command (matches Web SDK).
  • [BUGFIX] Setting a negative infinity value (-Infinity) now correctly works as expected.
  • [BUGFIX] QuerySnapshot.forEach() can now correctly takes an optional context argument.
  • [BUGFIX] Snapshot metadata now correctly returns a SnapshotMetadata class (as per Web SDK).
  • [BUGFIX] CollectionReference now correctly extends a Query class. In v5 it is possible to chain calls from Query โ†’ CollectionReference which isn't possible on the Web SDK.
  • [BUGFIX] onSnapshot() calls now take the correct arguments, allowing for SnapshotListenOptions, inline function callbacks or an object containing next/error callbacks (as per the Web SDK).
  • [BUGFIX] Setting a Date on Firestore was setting an incorrect value. Date objects are now converted to a Timestamp as per the Web SDK.
  • [BUGFIX] Cursor queries in v5 (startAt, startAfter, endAt, endBefore) were incorrectly handling a DocumentSnapshot argument. It is now possible to perform a cursor query directly on a snapshot, or on snapshot fields, as per the Web SDK, for example ending at a specific snapshot with no order.
  • [BREAKING] Blob can no longer be constructed manually, as per the Web SDK.
  • [BREAKING] The v6 release includes a lot of additional JavaScript validation. This is more consistent with the Web SDK and helps catch native errors/crashes which may occur due to false-positive data being sent over the bridge.
    • Specifically, the Query class has undergone a rewrite, and includes a lot of additional checks which are not present in v5. Please check your Firestore queries once upgraded.
  • [BREAKING] Removed the Query.where single equals operator (=) as per the Web SDK. Use == instead.
  • [BREAKING] previously deprecated setTimestampsInSnapshotsEnabled on settings has now been removed.
  • [PERFORMANCE][๐Ÿ”ฅ] [ANDROID] Data serialization logic is now correctly performed off the main UI thread. This will help increase performance and reduce activity on the UI thread when sending large volumes of data to Firestore and back to the device.
  • [PERFORMANCE][๐Ÿ”ฅ] The data serialization logic has undergone a large rewrite for performance.
    • JavaScript data being sent over the native bridge has to be converted to it's native counterpart, and visa versa. When dealing with a large number of documents and/or large amounts document data, this process can be both time consuming and resource intensive. The rewrite keeps data being sent over the bridge at a minimum; mapping data types to smaller serialization format that can be parsed by JS and Native code.
    • Sample comparisons against v5 have shown:
      • Data size sent over the bridge has been reduced by ~58%.
      • On large queries (4 documents with 1500 nested array items (containing all data types)) are over ~50% faster on v6. Smaller queries (1 document with 1500 nested array items) are over ~15% quicker.

Dynamic Links (dynamicLinks)

  • [BREAKING] the namespace for this module has changed, replace all usages of firebase.links() with firebase.dynamicLinks()
  • [BREAKING] onLink & getInitialLink now return a DynamicLink object with multiple properties, formally just provided just the URL as a string
  • [NEW][ios][๐Ÿ”ฅ] Manually adding AppDelegate methods to support receiving Dynamic Link open events is no longer required, we swizzle this at runtime and automatically intercept the required events.
  • [BUGFIX] Links should now always be accessible via onLink & getInitialLink
    • This fix is a 'side-effect' of the bug fix mentioned above in the all modules section ('All native events are now queued natively')
  • [BREAKING] Creating a Dynamic Link builder via new firebase.links.DynamicLink(link, domainURIPrefix) has been deprecated, use a plain object instead as an argument for buildLink() & buildShortLink().
  • [BREAKING] Some previously allowed parameter configurations will now throw an argument error, e.g. trying to set any DynamicLinkIOSParameters parameter without providing an iOS bundle id will now error.
    • these configurations were incorrect to begin with but were never flagged to user code so may have gone unnoticed

Functions (functions)

  • [BUGFIX] Fixed an issue where useFunctionsEmulator does not persist natively (Firebase iOS SDK requires chaining this method before other calls and does not modify the instance, Android however persists this)

In-App Messaging (inAppMessaging) - [NEW]

  • [NEW] Added support for firebase.inAppMessaging().isMessagesDisplaySuppressed: boolean;
  • [NEW] Added support for firebase.inAppMessaging().setMessagesDisplaySuppressed(enabled: boolean): Promise<null>;
  • [NEW] Added support for firebase.inAppMessaging().isAutomaticDataCollectionEnabled: boolean;
  • [NEW] Added support for firebase.inAppMessaging().setAutomaticDataCollectionEnabled(enabled: boolean): Promise<null>;

Instance Id (iid)

  • [NEW] Instance Id now supports multiple Firebase apps, e.g. firebase.app('fooApp').iid().get()

Cloud Messaging (messaging)

  • [NEW] added support for onSendError events, an event that indicates a message (with id) failed to send

  • [NEW] added support for onMessageSent events, an event that indicates a message (with id) was successfully sent

  • [NEW] added support for onDeletedMessages events, an event that indicates the FCM server deleted pending messages

    • when your app instance receives this event, it should perform a full sync with your app server if it relies on message data
  • [NEW] getToken & deleteToken now optionally support authorizedEntity & scope arguments

    • authorizedEntity - defaults to firebase.app().options.messagingSenderId
    • scope - defaults to FCM
  • [NEW][ios] added support for isRegisteredForRemoteNotifications: boolean;

  • [NEW][ios] added support for unregisterForRemoteNotifications(): Promise<void>;

  • [NEW][ios] requestPermission on iOS 12+ devices now uses the UNAuthorizationOptionProvisional option to request permission

    • this allows you to immediately start sending 'quiet' notifications to your users without their explicit permission, i.e., on a trial basis. requestPermission with this option will no longer show a permission request dialog to your user. Learn More
    • [WWDC 2018 Video] (30:00 onwards)
  • [NEW] added support for isAutoInitEnabled: boolean;

  • [NEW] added support for setAutoInitEnabled(enabled: boolean): Promise<void>;

  • [NEW] added support for disabling messaging auto initialization via the new firebase.json configuration file

    • messaging_auto_init_enabled: true/false
  • [NEW][android] added support for configuring the background Headless task timeout via the new firebase.json configuration file

    • messaging_android_headless_task_timeout: number - milliseconds
  • [NEW][android] added support for registering the background message headless task via firebase.messaging().setBackgroundMessageHandler(handler: Function)

  • [BREAKING][android] manually registering the background message headless task handler via AppRegistry.registerHeadlessTask is no longer supported. Call firebase.messaging().setBackgroundMessageHandler(handler: Function) instead.

    • This is a preemptive change that will allow us to support background tasks for iOS in a future release (as it won't be via RN Headless Tasks as it's not supported on iOS)
  • [BREAKING][android] the manually added RNFirebaseMessagingService service in your AndroidManifest.xml file is no longer required - you can safely remove it.

    • Many manual code changes that existed in v5 are now automatically handled for you in v6
  • [BREAKING][ios] any the manually added AppDelegate.m changes for messaging on v5 are longer required - you can safely remove them (search for RNFirebaseMessaging in your AppDelegate)

    • Many manual code changes that existed in v5 are now automatically handled for you in v6
  • [BREAKING] constructing a RemoteMessage instance via new firebase.messaging.RemoteMessage() is no longer supported, use firebase.messaging().newRemoteMessage() to retrieve a new remote message builder instance.

  • [BREAKING][ios] the minimum supported iOS version is now 10

    • iOS 9 or lower only accounts for 0.% of all iPhone devices
    • to see a detailed device versions breakdown see this link
    • community contributions that add iOS 9 support are welcome

Performance Monitoring (perf)

The Performance Monitoring API has had a significant API change as originally highlighted would happen in the v5.x.x docs:

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  • [BREAKING] All Trace & HttpMetric methods (except for start & stop) are now synchronous and no longer return a Promise, extra attributes/metrics now only get sent to native when you call stop
  • [BREAKING] firebase.perf.Trace.incrementMetric will now create a metric if it could not be found
  • [BREAKING] firebase.perf.Trace.getMetric will now return 0 if a metric could not be found
  • [NEW] Added support for firebase.perf().isPerformanceCollectionEnabled: boolean
  • [NEW] Added firebase.perf().startTrace(identifier: string): Promise<Trace>; as a convenience method to create and immediately start a Trace

Realtime Database (database)

The Realtime Database module has had a large re-write, fixing various inconsistencies against the web SDK, along with improving data serialization on the native side by moving intensive serialization work off the UI thread.

  • [BREAKING][bugfix] The Reference class now extends a Query class (to match the web SDK). Currently in v5 everything is within the Reference class, allowing for incorrect behavior such as chaining a reference only method to a query, e.g. ref().orderByKey().once(). This is now not possible and will cause a standard JavaScript error.
  • [BREAKING][bugfix] Internal validation for all methods has now been added. With v5 in some cases, incorrect values would be passed along to native and causing native exceptions/potential crashes.
  • [BREAKING][bugfix] All query based modifiers are now validated as per the Web SDK spec. In v5 it is possible to chain queries which are not allowed together causing native errors (e.g. .orderByKey().orderByPriority(), .startAt('foo', 'bar').orderByKey() etc). Doing so in v6 will now throw an error to keep it in-line with the Web SDK.
  • [BREAKING][bugfix] Reference.push now correctly mimics the Web SDK, returning a thenable reference.
  • [NEW] DatabaseSnapshot.forEach now returns the current index key.
  • [NEW] Many methods were missing an onComplete handler, which is now implemented as per the Web SDK.
  • [BUGFIX] DatabaseSnapshot.forEach correct iterates over "array" fields in the database.

Remote Config (remoteConfig)

The Remote Config API has had a significant API change as originally highlighted would happen in the v5.x.x docs:

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  • [BREAKING] Module namespace has been renamed to .remoteConfig(), replace all usages of firebase.config with the new name.
  • [BREAKING] All Remote Config values can now be accessed synchronously in JS, see getValue(key: string): ConfigValue & getAll(): ConfigValues below
    • [BREAKING] These replace all the original async methods: getValue, getValues, getKeysByPrefix
  • [BREAKING] setDefaultsFromResource now returns a Promise that resolves when completed, this will reject with code config/resource_not_found if the file could not be found
  • [BREAKING] setDefaultsFromResource now expects a resource file name for Android to match iOS, formerly this required a resource id (something you would not have in RN as this was generated at build time by Android)
    • And example for both platforms can be found in the tests.
  • [BREAKING] enableDeveloperMode has been removed, you can now use setConfigSettings({ isDeveloperModeEnabled: boolean }) instead
  • [BREAKING] setDefaults now returns a Promise that resolves when completed
  • [NEW] Added a new fetchAndActivate method - this fetches the config and activates it without the need to call activate() separately
  • [NEW] Added the following properties to firebase.remoteConfig(); lastFetchTime, lastFetchStatus & isDeveloperModeEnabled
  • [NEW] Added a new setConfigSettings method - this allows setting isDeveloperModeEnabled, replaces the enableDeveloperMode method
    • This is a generic settings function to preemptively account for an upcoming future change to the native SDKs - more settings to be added.
  • [NEW] All previous get* methods have been removed and replaced with 2 synchronous methods:
    • getValue(key: string): ConfigValue - returns a single configuration value { value, source }
    • getAll(): ConfigValues - returns all configuration values e.g. { some_key: { value, source }, other_key: { value, source } }

Note: Multi-apps is not yet supported as the Firebase iOS SDK is missing support for it.


Cloud Storage (storage)

  • [NEW] Added support for put (Blob | ArrayBuffer | Uint8Array)
    • contentType mime type is automatically inferred from Blob
  • [NEW] Added support for putString and all string formats (raw, base64, base64url & data_url)
    • contentType mime type is automatically inferred from data_url strings
  • [NEW] Added support multiple buckets, e.g. firebase.app().storage('gs://my-other-bucket')
  • [NEW] Added support pause(), resume() & cancel() for Upload & Download Storage tasks
  • [NEW] Added an error property to TaskSnapshot for error state events - this is an instance of NativeFirebaseError (with code & message)
  • [NEW] Added support for StorageReference.list() & StorageReference.listAll().
  • [BREAKING] Removed formerly deprecated UploadTaskSnapshot.downloadUrl property, use StorageReference.getDownloadURL(): Promise<string> instead
  • [BREAKING] StorageReference.downloadFile() is now deprecated and will be removed in a later release, please rename usages of this to writeToFile() - renamed to match Native SDKs
  • [BREAKING] firebase.storage.Native has moved to firebase.utils.Native
  • [BREAKING] firebase.utils.Native is now deprecated and will be removed in a later release, please rename usages of this to firebase.utils.FilePath
  • [BREAKING] firebase.utils.Native.* some properties have been renamed and deprecated and will be removed in a later release, follow the in-app console warnings on how to migrate
  • [BUGFIX][android] Update/set metadata now correctly supports removing metadata values by passing a null property value in customMetadata
  • [BUGFIX][android] contentType mime type is now correctly determined in all scenarios, there was an edge case where it would just use the default value
  • [INTERNAL][android] downloadFile no longer uses a StreamDownloadTask, replaced with the newer FileDownloadTask

ML (Machine Learning)

This is a new module in React Native Firebase.

  • [NEW] Implemented support for language identification APIs
    • Single Languages: identifyLanguage().
    • Multiple Languages: identifyPossibleLanguages()
  • [NEW] Implemented support for Text Recognition Vision APIs;
  • [NEW] Implemented support for Document Text Recognition Vision APIs;
  • [NEW] Implemented support for Image Labeling Vision APIs;
  • [NEW] Implemented support for Landmark Recognition Vision APIs;

Utils

  • [NEW] Added support via isRunningInTestLab for checking if an Android application is running inside a Firebase Test Lab environment
  • [NEW] Added a new FilePath utility that provides common file paths on the device, see firebase.utils.FilePath docs for more info, this is the replacement API for firebase.storage.Native