Setup - Configuration Files

There are two ways to configure an application.

• Using a packaged plist file on iOS and packaged resources on Android;
• Manual configuration passing in values at runtime.

The first method is the preferred method as it ensures your application is always correctly configured.

The second method will rely on a function call from your code which can be delayed and may cause some errors in background and initialisation operations particular with analytics. You may find Analytics doesn't work at all using the manual method.

We highly suggest you use the first method whenever possible. It does require slightly more work however it ensures your application is always running with the correct configuration.

Configuration Files

The first step in configuring your application is to get the configuration files from the Firebase console.

Once you have created your project in the console you will be able to navigate to the manage settings page and download the latest configuration file.

These files contain configuration details such as keys and identifiers, for the services you have enabled in your applications.

• iOS: GoogleService-Info.plist
• Android: google-services.json

Ideally you should be able to automatically configure your application using the configuration files downloaded from the Firebase console. However there are some slight complications that we will explain in the following sections.

iOS

For an iOS project this configuration file takes the form of an xml plist file called GoogleService-Info.plist.

Download this file and place it in the root of your application package and ensure it is packaged with your iOS AIR application.

This is all that is required for iOS and packaging this file with your application ensures your application is using the first method mentioned above.

Android

For an Android project this configuration file takes the form of a json file called google-services.json.

When an Android developer adds this file to his application part of the build process constructs resources file values.xml from this json file and packages them in their application.

As we don't have this option we have to manually convert this json file to the xml resources.

Create values.xml

We need to create the values.xml file from the details in the google-services.json file.

To create your values file (res/values/values.xml) you can either:

• use the conversion tool available here;
• create it manually by copying the example below;

Complete values.xml example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="google_app_id" translatable="false">1:1035469437089:android:73a4fb8297b2cd4f</string>
    <string name="gcm_defaultSenderId" translatable="false">1035469437089</string>
    <string name="default_web_client_id" translatable="false">337894902146-e4uksm38sne0bqrj6uvkbo4oiu4hvigl.apps.googleusercontent.com</string>
    <string name="ga_trackingId" translatable="false">UA-65557217-3</string>
    <string name="firebase_database_url" translatable="false">https://example-url.firebaseio.com</string>
    <string name="google_api_key" translatable="false">AIzbSyCILMsOuUKwN3qhtxrPq7FFemDJUAXTyZ8</string>
    <string name="google_crash_reporting_api_key" translatable="false">AIzbSyCILMsOuUKwN3qhtxrPq7FFemDJUAXTyZ8</string>
    <string name="google_storage_bucket" translatable="false">XXX</string>
    <string name="project_id" translatable="false">mydemoapp</string>
</resources>

The values from your google-services.json file coincide with the values in your values.xml file as per the table below:

Field Name	Json value
google_app_id	{YOUR_CLIENT}/client_info/mobilesdk_app_id
gcm_defaultSenderId	project_info/project_number
default_web_client_id	{YOUR_CLIENT}/oauth_client/client_id (client_type == 3)
ga_trackingId	{YOUR_CLIENT}/services/analytics-service/analytics_property/tracking_id
firebase_database_url	project_info/firebase_url
google_api_key	{YOUR_CLIENT}/api_key/current_key
google_crash_reporting_api_key	{YOUR_CLIENT}/api_key/current_key
google_storage_bucket	project_info/storage_bucket
project_id	project_info/project_id

Package Resources

Now that you have your values.xml you need to package it with your AIR application.

If you are using a recent version of AIR then you can specify a directory to add to the build and AIR will include the resources automatically:

• see details in the Custom Resources tutorial on airsdk.dev

If you are using an older version of AIR you must create an custom resources ANE and add that extension to your application:

• see details in the Custom Resources ANE tutorial

Location

Whichever method you use it is important that the values.xml file is places at values/values.xml in your resources directory.

Alternative: Loaded Configuration

This method is a manual configuration method which is the same as the manual configuration in the next section however the values are read directly from the json file if you package it with your Android application.

This method requires that you package the google-services.json at the root level of your application. When you call initialiseApp(), the extension will look for this file and if found will read the values appropriate for your application.

See the notes on the manual configuration below as all the points there apply to this method.

Manual Configuration

caution

This method while appearing simple is not advised.

Firebase has issues with some aspects of it's functionality when initialised in this manner. Particularly it seems that Analytics will fail and you will get error messages about a missing google_app_id. This appears to be well known and no current solution is available.

As we understand this process is provided to be able to access a secondary Firebase project in an application.

If you wish you can manually setup your application.

To do this you create an instance of the FirebaseOptions class and set the details for your application. You can locate these in the configuration files downloaded above.

var options:FirebaseOptions = new FirebaseOptions();
options.apiKey      = google_api_key;
options.clientID    = default_web_client_id;
options.databaseURL = firebase_database_url
options.gcmSenderID = gcm_defaultSenderId;
options.googleAppID = google_app_id;

Firebase.service.initialiseApp( options );

If you are using manual configuration on Android it is important that you remove the FirebaseInitProvider from your manifest. This provider is the code responsible for initialising Firebase using your resources, if you aren't providing the configuration resources then this will fail.

i.e. remove the following:

<!-- common -->
<provider
    android:authorities="APPLICATION_PACKAGE.firebaseinitprovider"
    android:name="com.google.firebase.provider.FirebaseInitProvider"
    android:exported="false"
    android:initOrder="100" />

Further information

• Download a configuration file
• Google Services JSON