aframe-firebase-component

Learn how to get started with Firebase.

A Firebase component for A-Frame.

Comes with a Firebase broadcast component for multiuser experiences out-of-the-box by syncing entities' component data to Firebase realtime database. The parent-child relationships between entities are maintained as well as long as all entities in the hierarchy have the broadcast component attached.

To deploy with GitHub pages when setting up Firebase with the Firebase Console, go into Auth, and add your GitHub pages domain (e.g., ngokevin.github.io). This will whitelist your domain.

If you want to allow unauthenticated users (most should), then go into Database, click on Rules, and set both the .read and .write to true.

Properties

firebase

Firebase configuration component for <a-scene>. The apiKey, authDomain, databaseURL, and storageBucket are provided by Firebase (go to the Firebase console for your app and click on "Add Firebase to your web app").

The optional channel name allows multiple A-Frame apps, or multiple instances/rooms of the same app, to share one Firebase bucket. If no channel is given, 'default' is used. The channel name can also be specified in the URL: mysite.com?aframe-firebase-channel=oahu

The optional interval sets how often (in milliseconds) data is sent to Firebase. Default interval is 10 milliseconds.

Property	Description	Required
apiKey	API key for Firebase.	yes
authDomain	Firebase authentication domain.	yes
channel	Name of room/namespace.	no
databaseURL	Firebase database URL.	yes
interval	Milliseconds between broadcasts.	no
storageBucket	Firebase storage bucket URL.	yes

firebase-broadcast

Broadcast component data to be synced across all clients using Firebase realtime database.

Property	Description	Default Value
components	List of comma-delimited component names to broadcast	position, rotation
componentsOnce	Sync initial value only; for components that don't change

For example:

<a-entity firebase-broadcast="components: material, geometry"><a-entity>

To broadcast individual component properties, use the component|property syntax:

<a-entity firebase-broadcast="components: material|color, geometry|width"><a-entity>

Accessing the Firebase Object

You can access the Firebase object:

document.querySelector('a-scene').systems.firebase.firebase

If you wanted to add game logic or features such as chat.

Usage

Browser Installation

Install and use by directly including the browser files:

<head>
  <title>My A-Frame Scene</title>
  <script src="https://aframe.io/releases/0.3.0/aframe.min.js"></script> 
  <script src="https://unpkg.com/aframe-firebase-component@^4.0.0/dist/aframe-firebase-component.min.js"></script> 
</head>
 
<body>
  <a-scene firebase="apiKey: abc;
                     authDomain: mysite.firebaseapp.com;
                     databaseURL: https://mysite.firebaseio.com;
                     storageBucket: mysite.appspot.com">
    <a-assets>
      <!-- Using mixins to decrease amount of data send over the wire. -->
      <a-mixin id="avatar-head"
              geometry="primitive: box; depth: 0.3; height: 0.3; width: 0.3"
              material="color: #222"></a-mixin>
    </a-assets>
 
    <a-entity id="avatar" mixin="avatar-head"
              camera look-controls wasd-controls
              firebase-broadcast="components: mixin, position, rotation"
              position="0 1.8 5">
    </a-entity>
  </a-scene>
</body>

NPM Installation

Install via NPM:

npm install aframe-firebase-component

Then register and use.

require('aframe');
require('aframe-firebase-component');

FAQ

Why can't I see anyone else?

Try positioning everyone at a different start point. In examples/presentation/components/, there is a random-position-at component that starts everyone at a different position (more specifically at one of the chairs).

Authors

Kevin Ngo, Mozilla
Amber Roy, AltspaceVR