This library is a work in progress, looking for the best idioms to use Firebase from Angular 2. The goal is to treat the Firebase API as a low-level layer, and build something on top of it such that application code can be more concise. An application should be able to consume data without caring about the on() Firebase API, Firebase events, or the object-as-pseudo-array convention.
The library currently includes:
- Firebase Observable object, a very straightforward implementation.
- Firebase Observable array, which understands the pattern of events emitted by Firebase and produces an observable of the resulting array.
Many areas are still under consideration and development:
- Writing to Firebase.
- Following references (joins)
- Ideally, a way to generate TS schema from Bolt schema.
https://github.com/OasisDigital/angular2-firebase-demo
By wrapping the firebase API behind Observables, then consuming those Observables via an async pipe, it should never be necessary to manually subscribe and unsubscribe the Observables, nor manually hook and unhook Firebase events.
I believe that, if you find it necessary to write ngOnDestroy in a visual component, it is a sign that the component is not yet sufficienty abstracted.
It will generally "just work" with typescript and webpack. Other combinations might work, but still need attention.
As far as I can tell, Typescript with NPM modules is still a topic of much discussion and work. Some examples suggest shipping only the Typescript code, but then the package can only be consumed by a project using typescript. Others suggest shipping the compiled code also, as is done here.
The situation is worse with "typing" files. To get a clean compilation it was necessary to include the firebase typing in this module; but that can conflict if you also include that same firebase typing in the application consuming this module. The ultimate answer is that projects should ship their own TypeScript typings; as of version 2.3.1 the Firebase NPM module does not include its typings.
Kyle Cordes http://kylecordes.com