It's Urgent POC

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Please open issues if anything goes wrong, I am happy to assist & resolve.

This is a Proof of Concept (POC) for It's Urgent Project for GSoC'24.

• Working Demo & Apk (does not require any setup):

  • Watch the working Demo Video here: https://youtu.be/__nhs4On2zI (1.5x speed recommended).
  • Download this Android .apk for testing (You need to allow installation from unknown source when installing the app).

• Running the App Using Flutter on your machine/device (Setup required):

  • This public repo is clone of my private repo which contains all the firebase files, secrets & apis.
  • This is a public repo, it does not contain any firebase functionlity.
  • You need to add firebase project by following these simple instructions which only requires some clicks, copy & paste.
  • For more important notes regarding this poc, see this section.
  • You can also learn from these codelabs
    • Firebase FCM Flutter
    • Get to know Firebase for Flutter

Steps to add your Firebase project in this project.

Prerequisites:

1. Check your Flutter installation using: flutter doctor -v.

2. Fork & clone this repo.

3. cd <this repo>.

4. Open in the Terminal/Android Studio/VS Code.

5. Install all plugins using: flutter pub get in the root folder of the project.

6. For iOS only (Important for getting firebase notifications):

   • If you are only using com.example.<appName> as bundle identifier, Firebase notifications will not work. So follow these steps before adding firebase to your app.
   • Right click on iOS folder -> Open in Xcode -> Runner -> Signing & Capabilities -> Enter some unique Bundle Identifier (like com.<your_unique_name>.<unique_appName> & press enter to check availability.
   • Then again in VSCode or your editor go to ios/Runner/Info.plist.
   • Change the CFBundleIdentifier to your own unique identifier like I did:
   • 

7. Go to https://console.firebase.google.com/ to create a Firebase account.

8. If you haven't already, install the Firebase CLI (Use npm: recommended).

9. Also remove these lines from .gitignore file at the root folder of your project. Thesse lines were added by me to prevent git to track my firebase files:

/android/app/google-services.json
/ios/firebase_app_id_file.json
/ios/Runner/GoogleService-Info.plist
lib/firebase_options.dart

10. Now move to Firebase section to add Firebase in your project.

Add Firebase:

• Follow these steps to add Firebase to this project.
• or, watch this YouTube Video.

Setup Firebase Authentication:

• Go to Firebase console -> Click on your Project which you added to this flutter app.
• On the left side menu, click Build -> Authentication -> Get Started -> Sign-in method tab -> Anonymous -> Enable (switch on) -> Save.

Setup Firebase Cloud Firestore:

• On the left side menu, click Build -> Firestore Database -> Create Database -> Next & Create (With default options).
• Once created, Select Rules tab -> Paste these rules:

rules_version = '2';
service cloud.firestore {
  match /databases/{database}/documents {
    // auth
    match /{document=**} {
      allow read, write: if request.auth != null;
    }
  }
}

• Publish.

Setup Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM):

• Click on Settings Icons next to Project Overview in the left side menu.
• Click on Project Settings -> Cloud Messaging tab.
• Click on ⋮ (three dots) next to Cloud Messaging API (Legacy) Disabled.
• Click on Manage Api in Google Cloud Console. It will redirect to Google cloud console page.
• Check your project name at the top and then click enable.
• Once enabled, come back to the Firebase console to see whether it is enabled.
• Now copy the Server key.
• Paste it in lib/secret.dart at <paste your own key from firebase cloud messaging>.
• All done.

Set up Cloud Messaging for iOS (Important) - needs Apple developer account:

• Navigate to the Apple developer page, and click Create a key on the Keys tab.

• Enter the name for the key and check Apple Push Notifications services (APNs).

• Download the key file, which has a .p8 file extension. Take note of Key Id & Team ID (At the top rigth corner):

• In the Firebase console, navigate to the project's Project Settings and choose the Cloud Messaging tab.

• Upload the APNs key file for the iOS app in the Cloud Messaging tab.
• Enter the APNs key ID from the Cloud Messaging tab and the team ID, which can be found at the top right corner in the Apple membership center.

iOS Signing & Capabilites:

• Again open the project in Xcode.

• Click on Runner -> Signing & Capabilites -> + Capability

• Click on Push Notifications.

• Enter Push Notifications inside the Capabilties search:

• Now Search for "Background Modes":

• Click on Background modes.

• Now ensure that both the "Background fetch" and the "Remote notifications" sub-modes are enabled:

• All Done.

Run App

• Now you can connect physical device or simulator to run using flutter run.
• If you have multiple devices connected, it will ask you to select one device.
• iOS simulators have problem showing notifications from Firebase, use physical iOS devices instead.

Some Important notes:

• This project uses Kotlin 1.8.0, which is required for app_settings plugin.
  • In your android/settings.gradle id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.android" version "1.8.0" apply false
• In this poc, Notifications only shows when app is in the background mode.
• For the foreground mode, it requires extra functionality which I will implement using the flutter_local_notifications or awesome_notifications package during my GSoC period.
• It also does not check for device's DND mode. Full functionality during GSoC period.
• It is currently using Cloud Messaging API (Legacy) for sending notifications, which is deprecated, I will use Firebase Cloud Messaging API (V1) which is recommended in the full project during my GSoC period.
• It does not uses any other backend server, cloud functions to handle complex logics such as checking for dnd mode, notifying the sender about challenges etc. as required & mentioned in project page. All functionality will be implemented using Firebase cloud functions, which will also act as security layer for cloud firestore db.
• Currently Phone numbers are stored as plain numbers, I will implement functionality to store phone number data in encrypted mode using cloud functions.
• Flutter/Dart plugins used:
  • firebase_core
  • firebase_auth
  • provider
  • cloud_firestore
  • flutter_contacts
  • transparent_image
  • app_settings
  • firebase_messaging
  • http