Read data from Realtime Database from Firebase in SwiftUI

Question

Ive been looking all over for documentation on using the Realtime Database with SwiftUI but all I find is information on using Firestore or old information with UIKit. Is there any info on how to just read from a database with a basic example?

Answer 1

In general, in SwiftUI, it's helpful to put networking/asynchronous code like Firebase into an ObservableObject that the View has access to. Then, you can use a trigger like onAppear to run your Firebase functions. Then, when a @Published property on your ObservableObject changes, your view will automatically re-render.

For example:

class FirebaseManager : ObservableObject {
  @Published var result : String?

  func makeFirebaseCall() {
    //make your Firebase data call here -- plenty of examples exist on how to do this, which is not SwiftUI or UIKit specific. When the Firebase call returns, set the returned value to your @Published property.
       self.result = //the result of my firebase call
    }
  }
}

struct ContentView : View {
  @StateObject private var firebaseManager = FirebaseManager()

  var body : some View {
    VStack {
      Text("Hello, world")
      if let result = firebaseManager.result {
        Text(result)
      }
    }.onAppear {
      firebaseManager.makeFirebaseCall()
    }
  } 
}