

TogetherJS + Firebase - jamest
https://github.com/firebase/togetherjs

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anant
I wrote this integration with Firebase - kudos to the TogetherJS team - the
source code was remarkably easy to understand and very modular! I just had to
create a new messaging channel implementation - it already supports WebSockets
and postMessage (the latter seems to be unused?).

Adding a Firebase backend to this was as easy as implementing a few methods,
took less than 50 lines of code:
[https://github.com/firebase/togetherjs/blob/develop/together...](https://github.com/firebase/togetherjs/blob/develop/togetherjs/channels.js#L200)

~~~
simonwex
Cool hack, Anant!

------
616c
I keep saying it, and downvote me if you wish. Screw Firebase, and long live
any initiative from Mozilla. I am not going to shove my data, realtime or not,
through some commercial service I have no intention of paying for and exposing
myself to the same non-sense as before.

However, I will give Mozilla a hard time this time around: the README on
Github kind of dismisses my desire to host my own TogetherJS/TowTruck server.
I am sad only because with other projects, like Firefox Sync and to some
extent Persona once the code is stableish, they encourage people hosting their
own server-side components.

In any event, no Firebase for me. Thanks.

~~~
icedog
Agreed. With all the cloud hosting platforms like Heroku, running one's own
backend on these services is quite simple and low maintenance. Firebase may be
useful for quickly prototyping something at a hackathon, but that's where I'd
leave it.

~~~
ianstormtaylor
Source? If that's the case, do you have alternate explanations for the success
of Heroku, Firebase, etc?

~~~
icedog
I'm saying paas solutions like Heroku and AppHarbor are rightfully successful.

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KaoruAoiShiho
I would like Firebase a lot more if they didn't:

1\. Raise prices twice in 3 months.

2\. Crash all the damn time.

3\. Do maintenance at peak times.

4\. Have buggy integration software.

As it is Firebase is pretty bad.

~~~
jamest
[Firebase CoFounder] I'm sorry to hear you've had a bad experience. Regarding
2 & 3 - you're likely seeing interruptions due to new code deploys. We try to
balance moving fast and deploying at off-peak times. Rolling deploys are
coming soon and will fix this.

Regarding 1 - We only started charging a month ago.

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with our integration software (I'm
assuming you're referring to our Angular binding?) Angular is changing
frequently, we work closely with the team at Google and try to keep up as fast
as we can.

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Keyframe
First time I see togetherJS, seems a bit on the sluggish side, great premise
though.

