Add Firebase to your C++ project
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Power up your C++ games with our Firebase C++ SDKs which provide a C++
interface on top of Firebase SDKs.
Access Firebase entirely from your C++ code, without having to write any
platform-native code. The Firebase SDK also translates many language-specific
idioms used by Firebase into an interface more familiar to C++ developers.
Find out more information about powering up your games with Firebase at our
Firebase games page.
Already added Firebase to your C++ project? Make sure that you're using the
latest version of the FirebaseC++ SDK.
Prerequisites
Install the following:
Xcode 16.2 or later
CocoaPods 1.12.0 or later
Make sure that your project targets the following platform versions or later:
iOS 15
tvOS 15
Set up a physical device or use the simulator to run your app.
Do you want to use Cloud Messaging?
For Cloud Messaging on Apple platforms, here are the prerequisites:
Before you can add Firebase to your C++ project, you need to create a Firebase
project to connect to your C++ project. Visit
Understand Firebase Projects to learn more about
Firebase projects.
To use Firebase in your Apple app, you need to register your app with your
Firebase project. Registering your app is often called "adding" your app to your
project.
Click Download GoogleService-Info.plist to obtain your Firebase Apple
platforms config file.
What do you need to know about this config file?
The Firebase config file contains unique, but non-secret identifiers for
your project and app. To learn more about this config file, visit
Understand Firebase
Projects.
To your Podfile, add the Firebase pods that you want to use in your
app.
Analytics enabled
# Add the Firebase pod for Google Analyticspod'FirebaseAnalytics' # Add the pods for any other Firebase products you want to use in your app# For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Databasepod'FirebaseAuth'pod'FirebaseDatabase'
Analytics not enabled
# Add the pods for the Firebase products you want to use in your app# For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Databasepod'FirebaseAuth'pod'FirebaseDatabase'
Install the pods, then open the .xcworkspace file in Xcode.
The easiest way to add these frameworks is usually to drag them from a
Finder window directly into Xcode's Project Navigator pane (the
far-left pane, by default; or click the file icon in the top-left of Xcode).
Add the Firebase C++ framework firebase.framework, which is
required to use any Firebase product.
Add the framework for each Firebase product that you want to use. For
example, to use Firebase Authentication, add firebase_auth.framework.
Back in the Firebase console, in the setup workflow, click Next.
If you added Analytics, run your app to send verification to Firebase
that you've successfully integrated Firebase. Otherwise, you can skip this
verification step.
Your device logs will display the Firebase verification that initialization
is complete. If you ran your app on an emulator that has network access,
the Firebase console notifies you that your app connection is complete.
You’re all set! Your C++ app is registered and configured to use Firebase
products.
Available libraries
Learn more about the C++ Firebase libraries in the
reference documentation and in our open-source SDK
release on GitHub.
Each Firebase product has different dependencies. Be sure to add all the
listed dependencies for the desired Firebase product to your Podfile and
C++ project.
Each Firebase product may only support a selection of Apple OS platforms (iOS,
tvOS, etc.). Check which platforms are supported by each library in
Learn more about C++ and Firebase.
pod 'FirebaseRemoteConfig', '12.6.0' (recommended)pod 'FirebaseAnalytics', '12.6.0'
Additional information for mobile setup
Method swizzling
On iOS, some application events (such as opening URLs and receiving
notifications) require your application delegate to implement specific
methods. For example, receiving a notification might require your application
delegate to implement application:didReceiveRemoteNotification:. Because
each iOS application has its own app delegate, Firebase uses
method swizzling, which allows the replacement of one method with another,
to attach its own handlers in addition to any that you might have implemented.
The Dynamic Links and Cloud Messaging libraries need
to attach handlers to the application delegate using method swizzling. If
you're using any of these Firebase products, at load time, Firebase will
identify your AppDelegate class and swizzle the required methods onto it,
chaining a call back to your existing method implementation.
Set up a desktop workflow (beta)
When you're creating a game, it's often much easier to test your game on desktop
platforms first, then deploy and test on mobile devices later in development. To
support this workflow, we provide a
subset of the FirebaseC++ SDKs which can run on
Windows, macOS, Linux, and from within the C++ editor.
For desktop workflows, you need to complete the following:
Create a desktop version of the Firebase configuration file:
If you added the Android google-services.json file — When you run
your app, Firebase locates this mobile file, then automatically
generates a desktop Firebase config file
(google-services-desktop.json).
If you added the iOS GoogleService-Info.plist file — Before you run
your app, you need to convert this mobile file to a desktop Firebase
config file. To convert the file, run the following command from the same
directory as your GoogleService-Info.plist file:
This desktop config file contains the C++ project ID that you entered in
the Firebase console setup workflow. Visit
Understand Firebase Projects
to learn more about config files.
Add Firebase SDKs to your C++ project.
The steps below serve as an example of how to add any
supported Firebase product to
your C++ project. In this example, we walk through adding
Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database.
Set your FIREBASE_CPP_SDK_DIR environment variable to the location of
the unzipped FirebaseC++ SDK.
To your project's CMakeLists.txt file, add the following content,
including the libraries for
the Firebase products that you want to use. For example, to use
Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database:
# Add Firebase libraries to the target using the function from the SDK.add_subdirectory(${FIREBASE_CPP_SDK_DIR}bin/EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)# The Firebase C++ library `firebase_app` is required,# and it must always be listed last.# Add the Firebase SDKs for the products you want to use in your app# For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Databaseset(firebase_libsfirebase_authfirebase_databasefirebase_app)target_link_libraries(${target_name}"${firebase_libs}")
Run your C++ app.
Available libraries (desktop)
The FirebaseC++ SDK includes desktop workflow support
for a subset of features, enabling certain parts of Firebase to be used in
standalone desktop builds on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Firebase provides the remaining desktop libraries as stub (non-functional)
implementations for convenience when building for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Therefore, you don't need to conditionally compile code to target the desktop.
Realtime Database desktop
The Realtime Database SDK for desktop uses REST to access your database, so you must
declare the indexes that
you use with Query::OrderByChild() on desktop or your listeners will fail.
Additional information for desktop setup
Windows libraries
For Windows, library versions are provided based on the following:
Build platform: 32-bit (x86) vs 64-bit (x64) mode
Windows runtime environment: Multithreaded / MT vs Multithreaded DLL /MD
Target: Release vs Debug
Note that the following libraries were tested using Visual Studio 2015 and 2017.
When building C++ desktop apps on Windows, link the following Windows SDK
libraries to your project. Consult your compiler documentation for more
information.
For macOS (Darwin), library versions are provided for the 64-bit (x86_64)
platform. Frameworks are also provided for your convenience.
Note that the macOS libraries have been tested using Xcode
16.2.
When building C++ desktop apps on macOS, link the following to your project:
pthread system library
CoreFoundation macOS system framework
Foundation macOS system framework
Security macOS system framework
GSS macOS system framework
Kerberos macOS system framework
SystemConfiguration macOS system framework
Consult your compiler documentation for more information.
Linux libraries
For Linux, library versions are provided for 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64)
platforms.
Note that the Linux libraries were tested using GCC 4.8.0, GCC 7.2.0, and
Clang 5.0 on Ubuntu.
When building C++ desktop apps on Linux, link the pthread system library to
your project. Consult your compiler documentation for more information. If
you're building with GCC 5 or later, define -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0.
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