Implementing a Firebase server-side countdown timer for Android?

Question

Is there a way to implement a Firebase server-side countdown timer in Android Studio?

I want the timer to be server side, meaning that whenever a user opens my app the counter will always be at the same time for all users.

I read the answers to this question, but they're 2+ years old and Firebase changed a lot since. It was acquired by Google in October 2014 and a significant number of new features were featured in May 2016 at Google I/O.

If Firebase can't provide that feature, is there another platform that can provide server-side countdown?

Answer 1

I dont have better idea for countdown only calculate on clientside.

What happen if you do it:

1. Get Server Time in timestamp (add to srvTime variable)

Create new record for "countdown" timer:

1. Start time: srvTime
2. End time: Time in ms when countdown ended for example (5min = 60000*5)

And you can calculate in client side.

Or create a listener, for ServerValue.TIMESTAMP

ref.addValueEventListener(new ValueEventListener() {
    public void onDataChange(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot) {
        System.out.println(dataSnapshot.getValue()); 
    }

    public void onCancelled(DatabaseError databaseError) { }
});
ref.setValue(ServerValue.TIMESTAMP);