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My straight question is: since I am not interested in other Google Services, only Firestore, what is the difference between Firebase Cli and gcloud? Can I do all I need only with Firebase Cli or should I learn also gcloud?

I can easilly see that gcloud can handle more services than Firebase Cli. Also I can see Firebase Cli remenber me a lot the purpose of npm+ng cli when working with NodeJs/Angular (a simple analogy about scaffold/initialize/deploy). Nevertheless, our company will only use Firestore to take advantage of its Realtime Database pushing events to our mobile application.

I use Firebase Cli to type in my Windows command line and create a project in Firebase. I can see the result in Firebase Console and I also can see it in Console Cloud Plataform.

For me, who is total beginner with Google Cloud Plataform, it is a bit confused when prefer one over other. For instance, let's say I want to query data from Firebase Crashlytics from command line instead of logging from my Browser. Is it possible to use either Firebase Cli or gcloud? If both, which one is recommended for some company only interested in Firestore project?

This week I am struggling to figure out how to extract metrics regard my Firestore project and if I don't know what is the recommended tool for reach this task it make even harder to find the first steps. By extracting I don't mean see a beatifull dash in Google Console. I mean consume an endpoint providing me Firestore Metrics or, even better, subscribe my endpoint to Firestore project which will be called every time some issue happens (Other question asking exactly about getting Firestore metrics)

Jim C
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  • Please, if possible, explain why downgraded my question (I am not complaining, I just want improve my question skills). I am really struggling to move forward in some Firestore cases. – Jim C Apr 30 '20 at 19:15

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It is confusing and is partly the result of Google's acquisition of Firebase, the creation of what's now called Firestore (which is the unification of the original Firebase backend technology and Google Cloud Datastore), and that Google provides the Firestore service to both its Firebase and Google Cloud developer audiences.

As you've gathered, Google Cloud's CLI (Cloud SDK aka gcloud) and the Firebase CLI overlap in functionality. However, importantly:

  • both CLIs interact with a shared set of Google services (e.g. Firestore, identity, logging etc.).
  • there are some Google Cloud services not part of Firebase and vice versa

If you're focused on Firebase, you should be to able to stick with the Firebase CLI and continue to interact with Google's services through this Firebase lens.

If you include Google Cloud Platform services that aren't part of Firebase, you'll need to then consider using gcloud but importantly, you can either:

  • continue to use the Firebase CLI for the Firebase services;
  • use gcloud to interact with some (not all!) of the Firebase services (e.g. Firestore).

Over time, I assume (!) the remain discord between these 2 platforms will diminish.

If you consider both platforms as the result of (an ongoing?) unification since the acquisition, hopefully, these discrepancies will be more understandable and less frustrating.

Where you do find inconsistencies and frustrations, ensure Google knows by submitting feature requests and bugs.

DazWilkin
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  • thank you for your excellent answer. If you don't mind, I have been struggling to figure out how to get metrics from Firestore other than from Firebase Console. For instance, is there any endpoint I could use either Firebase Tool Cli or gcloud to get metrics like exceptions, throughput, perfomance, delay, pick of clients listen our Firestore etc. For my first project in Google CLoud, I will not use anything other than Firestore Realdatabase with a very simple collection holding transactions status but with 4 million costumers conecting to it from their mobiles and I want to get metrics data – Jim C May 01 '20 at 00:41
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    You're welcome! I'm familiar more with Google Cloud than Firebase. I think you'd need to consider Cloud's [Error Reporting](https://firebase.google.com/docs/functions/reporting-errors) and [Monitoring](https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/usage/monitor-performance#monitor_performance_in) – DazWilkin May 01 '20 at 21:19
  • thanks. Your first link is related to Cloud Function. I am using only Firestore. Copied from your first link: Automatically reporting errors You can emit an error from a Cloud Function to Stackdriver Error Reporting – Jim C May 01 '20 at 22:03
  • regard your second suggestioned link, I am struggling to find how to use it. I posted my issue in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61551885/firebasehosting-googleapis-com-network-active-connections-no-such-file-or-direc – Jim C May 01 '20 at 23:55