Power up your C++ games with our Firebase C++ SDKs which provide a C++
interface on top of Firebase SDKs.
Access Firebase entirely from your C++ code, without having to write any
platform-native code. The Firebase SDK also translates many language-specific
idioms used by Firebase into an interface more familiar to C++ developers.
Find out more information about powering up your games with Firebase at our
Firebase games page
.
Already added Firebase to your C++ project? Make sure that you're using the
latest version of the
Firebase C++ SDK
.
Prerequisites
Install the following:
- Xcode 13.3.1 or later
- CocoaPods 1.12.0 or later
Make sure that your project targets the following platform versions or later:
Set up a physical device or use the simulator to run your app.
Do you want to use Cloud Messaging?
For Cloud Messaging on Apple platforms, here are the prerequisites:
- Set up a
physical Apple device
.
- Obtain an Apple Push Notification Authentication Key for your
Apple Developer account
.
- Enable Push Notifications in Xcode under
App > Capabilities
.
Sign into Firebase
using your
Google account.
Step 2
: Create a Firebase project
Before you can add Firebase to your C++ project, you need to create a Firebase
project to connect to your C++ project. Visit
Understand Firebase Projects
to learn more about
Firebase projects.
Create a Firebase project
-
In the
Firebase console
, click
Add project
.
-
To add Firebase resources to an
existing
Google Cloud project, enter its
project name or select it from the dropdown menu.
-
To create a new project, enter the desired project name. You can also optionally
edit the project ID displayed below the project name.
-
If prompted, review and accept the
Firebase terms
.
-
Click
Continue
.
-
(Optional)
Set up Google Analytics for your project, which enables you
to have an optimal experience using any of the following Firebase products:
Either select an existing
Google Analytics account
or to create a new account.
If you create a new account, select your
Analytics reporting location
, then accept
the data sharing settings and Google Analytics terms for your project.
-
Click
Create project
(or
Add Firebase
, if you're using an
existing Google Cloud project).
Firebase automatically provisions resources for your Firebase project. When
the process completes, you'll be taken to the overview page for your Firebase
project in the Firebase console.
Step 3
: Register your app with Firebase
To use Firebase in your Apple app, you need to register your app with your
Firebase project. Registering your app is often called "adding" your app to your
project.
Go to the
Firebase console
.
In the center of the project overview page, click the
iOS+
icon
to launch the setup workflow.
If you've already added an app to your Firebase project, click
Add app
to display the platform options.
Enter your app's bundle ID in the
bundle ID
field.
What's a bundle ID, and where do you find it?
A
bundle ID
uniquely identifies an application in Apple's ecosystem.
Find your bundle ID: open your project in Xcode, select the
top-level app in the project navigator, then select the
General
tab.
The value of the
Bundle Identifier
field is the bundle ID
(for example,
com.yourcompany.yourproject
).
Be aware that the bundle ID value is case-sensitive, and it cannot be
changed for this Firebase app after it's registered with your
Firebase project.
(Optional)
Enter other app information:
App nickname
and
App Store ID
.
How are the
App nickname
and the
App Store ID
used within Firebase?
Click
Register app
.
Step 4
: Add the Firebase configuration file
Click
Download GoogleService-Info.plist
to obtain your Firebase Apple
platforms config file.
What do you need to know about this config file?
The Firebase config file contains unique, but non-secret identifiers for
your project. To learn more about this config file, visit
Understand Firebase
Projects
.
You can download your
Firebase config
file
again at any time.
Make sure the config file name is not appended with additional characters,
like
(2)
.
Open your C++ project in an IDE, then drag your config file into the root
of your C++ project.
If prompted, select to add the config file to all targets.
You're done with set up tasks in the Firebase console. Continue to
Add Firebase C++ SDKs
below.
Step 5
: Add Firebase C++ SDKs
The steps in this section are an example of how to add
supported Firebase products
to your Firebase
C++ project.
Download the
Firebase C++ SDK
, then unzip the SDK somewhere convenient.
The Firebase C++ SDK is not platform-specific, but it does contain
platform-specific libraries.
Add Firebase
pods
from the unzipped SDK.
Create a Podfile if you don't already have one:
cd
your-app-directory
pod init
To your Podfile, add the Firebase pods that you want to use in your
app.
Analytics enabled
# Add the Firebase pod for Google Analytics
pod 'FirebaseAnalytics'
# Add the pods for any other Firebase products you want to use in your app
# For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database
pod 'FirebaseAuth'
pod 'FirebaseDatabase'
Analytics not enabled
# Add the pods for the Firebase products you want to use in your app
# For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database
pod 'FirebaseAuth'
pod 'FirebaseDatabase'
Install the pods, then open the
.xcworkspace
file in Xcode.
pod install
open
your-app
.xcworkspace
Add Firebase
frameworks
from the unzipped
SDK.
The easiest way to add these frameworks is usually to drag them from a
Finder
window directly into Xcode's
Project Navigator
pane (the
far-left pane, by default; or click the file icon in the top-left of Xcode).
Add the Firebase C++ framework
firebase.framework
, which is
required
to use any Firebase product.
Add the framework for each Firebase product that you want to use. For
example, to use Firebase Authentication, add
firebase_auth.framework
.
Back in the Firebase console, in the setup workflow, click
Next
.
If you added Analytics, run your app to send verification to Firebase
that you've successfully integrated Firebase. Otherwise, you can skip this
verification step.
Your device logs will display the Firebase verification that initialization
is complete. If you ran your app on an emulator that has network access,
the
Firebase console
notifies you that your app connection is complete.
You’re all set! Your C++ app is registered and configured to use Firebase
products.
Available libraries
Learn more about the C++ Firebase libraries in the
reference documentation
and in our open-source SDK
release on
GitHub
.
Available libraries for Apple platforms
Note that C++ libraries for Android are listed on the
Android version of this
setup page
.
Each Firebase product has different dependencies. Be sure to add all the
listed dependencies for the desired Firebase product to your Podfile and
C++ project.
Each Firebase product may only support a selection of Apple OS platforms (iOS,
tvOS, etc.). Check which platforms are supported by each library in
Learn more about C++ and Firebase
.
Firebase product
|
Frameworks and Pods
|
AdMob
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_admob.framework
(required)
firebase_analytics.framework
pod 'FirebaseAdMob', '10.24.0'
(required)
pod 'FirebaseAnalytics', '10.24.0'
|
Analytics
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_analytics.framework
pod 'FirebaseAnalytics', '10.24.0'
|
App Check
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_app_check.framework
pod 'FirebaseAppCheck', '10.24.0'
|
Authentication
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_auth.framework
pod 'FirebaseAuth', '10.24.0'
|
Cloud Firestore
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_firestore.framework
firebase_auth.framework
pod 'FirebaseFirestore', '10.24.0'
pod 'FirebaseAuth', '10.24.0'
|
Cloud Functions
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_functions.framework
pod 'FirebaseFunctions', '10.24.0'
|
Cloud Messaging
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_messaging.framework
(recommended)
firebase_analytics.framework
pod 'FirebaseMessaging', '10.24.0'
(recommended)
pod 'FirebaseAnalytics', '10.24.0'
|
Cloud Storage
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_storage.framework
pod 'FirebaseStorage', '10.24.0'
|
Dynamic Links
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_dynamic_links.framework
(recommended)
firebase_analytics.framework
pod 'FirebaseDynamicLinks', '10.24.0'
(recommended)
pod 'FirebaseAnalytics', '10.24.0'
|
Realtime Database
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_database.framework
pod 'FirebaseDatabase', '10.24.0'
|
Remote Config
|
(required)
firebase.framework
firebase_remote_config.framework
(recommended)
firebase_analytics.framework
pod 'FirebaseRemoteConfig', '10.24.0'
(recommended)
pod 'FirebaseAnalytics', '10.24.0'
|
Additional information for mobile setup
Method swizzling
On iOS, some application events (such as opening URLs and receiving
notifications) require your application delegate to implement specific
methods. For example, receiving a notification might require your application
delegate to implement
application:didReceiveRemoteNotification:
. Because
each iOS application has its own app delegate, Firebase uses
method swizzling
, which allows the replacement of one method with another,
to attach its own handlers in addition to any that you might have implemented.
The Dynamic Links and Cloud Messaging libraries need
to attach handlers to the application delegate using method swizzling. If
you're using any of these Firebase products, at load time, Firebase will
identify your
AppDelegate
class and swizzle the required methods onto it,
chaining a call back to your existing method implementation.
Set up a desktop workflow (
beta
)
When you're creating a game, it's often much easier to test your game on desktop
platforms first, then deploy and test on mobile devices later in development. To
support this workflow, we provide a
subset of the Firebase C++ SDKs
which can run on
Windows, macOS, Linux, and from within the C++ editor.
For desktop workflows, you need to complete the following:
- Configure your C++ project for CMake.
- Create a Firebase project
- Register your app (iOS or Android) with Firebase
- Add a mobile-platform Firebase configuration file
Create a
desktop
version of the Firebase configuration file:
If you added the Android
google-services.json
file
? When you run
your app, Firebase locates this
mobile
file, then automatically
generates a
desktop
Firebase config file
(
google-services-desktop.json
).
If you added the iOS
GoogleService-Info.plist
file
? Before you run
your app, you need to convert this
mobile
file to a
desktop
Firebase
config file. To convert the file, run the following command from the same
directory as your
GoogleService-Info.plist
file:
generate_xml_from_google_services_json.py --plist -i GoogleService-Info.plist
This desktop config file contains the C++ project ID that you entered in
the Firebase console setup workflow. Visit
Understand Firebase Projects
to learn more about config files.
Add Firebase SDKs to your C++ project.
The steps below serve as an example of how to add any
supported Firebase product
to
your C++ project. In this example, we walk through adding
Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database.
Set your
FIREBASE_CPP_SDK_DIR
environment variable to the location of
the unzipped Firebase C++ SDK.
To your project's
CMakeLists.txt
file, add the following content,
including the
libraries
for
the Firebase products that you want to use. For example, to use
Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database:
# Add Firebase libraries to the target using the function from the SDK.
add_subdirectory(${FIREBASE_CPP_SDK_DIR} bin/ EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
# The Firebase C++ library `firebase_app` is required,
# and it must always be listed last.
# Add the Firebase SDKs for the products you want to use in your app
# For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database
set(firebase_libs firebase_auth firebase_database firebase_app)
target_link_libraries(${target_name} "${firebase_libs}")
Run your C++ app.
Available libraries (desktop)
The Firebase C++ SDK includes
desktop workflow support
for a subset of features, enabling certain parts of Firebase to be used in
standalone desktop builds on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Firebase provides the remaining desktop libraries as stub (non-functional)
implementations for convenience when building for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Therefore, you don't need to conditionally compile code to target the desktop.
Realtime Database desktop
The Realtime Database SDK for desktop uses REST to access your database, so you must
declare the indexes
that
you use with
Query::OrderByChild()
on desktop or your listeners will fail.
Additional information for desktop setup
Windows libraries
For Windows, library versions are provided based on the following:
- Build platform: 32-bit (x86) vs 64-bit (x64) mode
- Windows runtime environment: Multithreaded / MT vs Multithreaded DLL /MD
- Target: Release vs Debug
Note that the following libraries were tested using Visual Studio 2015 and 2017.
When building C++ desktop apps on Windows, link the following Windows SDK
libraries to your project. Consult your compiler documentation for more
information.
Firebase C++ Library
|
Windows SDK library dependencies
|
App Check
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32
|
Authentication
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32
|
Cloud Firestore
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32, rpcrt4, ole32, shell32
|
Cloud Functions
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32, rpcrt4, ole32
|
Cloud Storage
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32
|
Realtime Database
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32, iphlpapi, psapi, userenv
|
Remote Config
|
advapi32, ws2_32, crypt32, rpcrt4, ole32
|
macOS libraries
For macOS (Darwin), library versions are provided for the 64-bit (x86_64)
platform. Frameworks are also provided for your convenience.
Note that the macOS libraries have been tested using Xcode
13.3.1.
When building C++ desktop apps on macOS, link the following to your project:
pthread
system library
CoreFoundation
macOS system framework
Foundation
macOS system framework
Security
macOS system framework
GSS
macOS system framework
Kerberos
macOS system framework
SystemConfiguration
macOS system framework
Consult your compiler documentation for more information.
Linux libraries
For Linux, library versions are provided for 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64)
platforms.
Note that the Linux libraries were tested using GCC 4.8.0, GCC 7.2.0, and
Clang 5.0 on Ubuntu.
When building C++ desktop apps on Linux, link the
pthread
system library to
your project. Consult your compiler documentation for more information. If
you're building with GCC 5 or later, define
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0
.
Next steps