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Flutter + Firebase

TL;DR / when to use this: Firebase is the auth + database backend for Flutter apps. The modern path is flutterfire configure (the old tutorial flow is outdated โ€” the official flutter.dev docs match the current process). Auth and Firestore patterns, plus the Spring Boot side if your backend is Java.

CLI setup

npm install -g firebase-tools
firebase login
flutter pub global activate flutterfire_cli
flutterfire configure          # links the Flutter project to a Firebase project
flutter pub add firebase_core
flutter pub add firebase_firestore   # for Firestore database

CocoaPods pitfall (iOS)

If pod install fails with "Firebase/CoreOnly requires a higher minimum iOS deployment version":

sudo gem uninstall cocoapods
brew install cocoapods
brew link --overwrite cocoapods

and in ios/Podfile, uncomment the platform line and set it to '13.0'.

Auth + Firestore patterns

  • Future for one-time reads (single document), Stream for real-time listeners โ€” see Flutter Setup.
  • Keep Firebase calls behind a service/provider, not inside widgets.

Spring Boot backend + Firebase Auth

If the API side is Spring Boot, verify Firebase ID tokens server-side with the Firebase Admin SDK โ€” full walkthrough in Spring + Firebase Auth and the original post.

See also