AnonFeed

An anonymous social feed application built with Flutter and Firebase. Share posts, interact with content, and connect with others while maintaining your privacy.

Features

• 🔐 Google Sign-In Authentication - Secure authentication using Google accounts
• 📝 Create Posts - Share text posts with optional images and hashtags
• ❤️ Like & Comment - Interact with posts through likes and comments
• 🔍 Search - Search posts by content, username, or hashtags
• 👤 User Profiles - View and manage your profile
• 🖼️ Image Support - Upload and display images in posts
• ⏰ Real-time Updates - Live feed updates using Firestore streams
• 🎨 Modern UI - Beautiful Material Design 3 interface

Tech Stack

• Framework: Flutter 3.8.0+
• Backend: Firebase
  • Firebase Authentication (Google Sign-In)
  • Cloud Firestore (Database)
  • Firebase Storage (Image storage)
• State Management: Provider
• Key Packages:
  • firebase_core, firebase_auth, cloud_firestore, firebase_storage
  • google_sign_in
  • image_picker, cached_network_image
  • provider
  • intl, timeago, uuid

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• Flutter SDK (3.8.0 or higher)
• Dart SDK (included with Flutter)
• Android Studio or VS Code with Flutter extensions
• Firebase CLI (optional, for Firebase setup)
• A Google account for Firebase project setup

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd anonfeed

2. Install Dependencies

flutter pub get

3. Firebase Setup

Follow the detailed Firebase setup instructions in FIREBASE_SETUP.md.

Quick Setup Steps:

1. Create a Firebase project at Firebase Console
2. Enable Authentication with Google Sign-In
3. Create a Firestore Database (start in test mode for development)
4. Enable Firebase Storage
5. Run flutterfire configure to set up Firebase for your Flutter app
6. Add SHA-1 key for Android (see FIREBASE_SETUP.md for details)

4. Run the Application

# Run on connected device/emulator
flutter run

# Run on specific platform
flutter run -d chrome        # Web
flutter run -d windows       # Windows
flutter run -d android       # Android
flutter run -d ios           # iOS (macOS only)

Project Structure

lib/
├── main.dart                 # App entry point and authentication wrapper
├── models/                   # Data models
│   ├── user_model.dart
│   ├── post_model.dart
│   └── comment_model.dart
├── screens/                  # UI screens
│   ├── login_screen.dart
│   ├── main_screen.dart      # Bottom navigation wrapper
│   ├── home_screen.dart      # Feed of posts
│   ├── search_screen.dart    # Search functionality
│   ├── create_post_screen.dart
│   ├── comments_screen.dart
│   └── profile_screen.dart
└── services/                 # Business logic
    ├── auth_service.dart     # Authentication operations
    ├── database_service.dart # Firestore operations
    └── storage_service.dart  # Firebase Storage operations

Usage

Signing In

1. Launch the app
2. Tap "Sign in with Google"
3. Select your Google account
4. Grant necessary permissions

Creating a Post

1. Navigate to the "Create" tab (bottom navigation)
2. Enter your post content
3. Optionally add an image by tapping the image icon
4. Add hashtags (format: #hashtag)
5. Tap "Post" to publish

Interacting with Posts

• Like: Tap the heart icon on any post
• Comment: Tap the comment icon to view/add comments
• Search: Use the search tab to find posts by content, user, or hashtag
• Profile: View your profile and posts in the Profile tab

Database Structure

Firestore Collections

users/
  {uid}/
    - uid: string
    - email: string
    - username: string
    - profile_image: string
    - created_at: timestamp

posts/
  {postId}/
    - post_id: string
    - user_id: string
    - username: string
    - content_text: string
    - image_url: string
    - hashtags: array
    - created_at: timestamp
    - likes_count: number
    - comments_count: number

comments/
  {postId}/
    postComments/
      {commentId}/
        - comment_id: string
        - post_id: string
        - user_id: string
        - username: string
        - comment_text: string
        - created_at: timestamp

likes/
  {postId}/
    userLikes/
      {userId}/
        - liked_at: timestamp

Security Rules

For development, the app uses test mode security rules. Before deploying to production, update your Firestore and Storage security rules. See FIREBASE_SETUP.md for recommended production rules.

Testing

Run the test suite:

flutter test

Building for Production

Android

flutter build apk --release
# or
flutter build appbundle --release

iOS

flutter build ios --release

Web

flutter build web --release

Windows

flutter build windows --release

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Google Sign-In not working:

• Verify SHA-1 key is added in Firebase Console
• Download and replace google-services.json (Android) or GoogleService-Info.plist (iOS)
• Clean and rebuild: flutter clean && flutter pub get

Firestore permission errors:

• Check Firestore Security Rules in Firebase Console
• Ensure user is authenticated
• Verify rules allow the operation you're trying to perform

Image upload issues:

• Check Firebase Storage Rules
• Verify user is authenticated
• Check file size limits (default is 5MB)

Build errors:

• Run flutter clean
• Delete pubspec.lock and run flutter pub get
• Ensure all Firebase configuration files are in place

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

For issues and questions:

• Check FIREBASE_SETUP.md for Firebase-related issues
• Review Flutter documentation: https://docs.flutter.dev/
• Review Firebase documentation: https://firebase.google.com/docs

Acknowledgments

• Flutter team for the amazing framework
• Firebase team for the backend services
• All open-source contributors