How to use firebase to update your Android App

I've seen that there are ways to update an app with Firebase Remote Config. Some sort of "Force Update" Notification. If anyone can explain it to me, that would be great.

> How to use Firebase to update your Android App?

There are multiple ways in which you can update an Android app. The first one would be to store data in a database. Firebase has two real-time databases, Cloud Firestore and the Realtime Database. You can one or the other, according to the use case of your app. For that I recommend you check the following resource:

• https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/rtdb-vs-firestore

When it comes to Remote Config, please notice that nowadays you can propagate Remote Config updates in real-time. That being said, there is no need to force anything. So I highly recommend that a look at that.

For Force update in a simple case the idea is

1. with firebase remort config sends the version number which you want for your application to be forced

2. then compare remort version with the local application version

3. if there is a mismatch then show a permanent dialog (cancelable=false) with a button when the user clicks on that button to open the application in the play store .

Check out this Small Class created for force update with remort config

class ForceUpdateChecker(private val context: Context, private val onUpdateNeededListener: OnUpdateNeededListener?) {
interface OnUpdateNeededListener {
fun onUpdateNeeded(updateUrl: String?)
}
fun check() {
val remoteConfig = FirebaseRemoteConfig.getInstance()
if (remoteConfig.getBoolean(KEY_UPDATE_REQUIRED)) {
val currentVersion = remoteConfig.getString(KEY_CURRENT_VERSION)
val appVersion = getAppVersion(context)
val updateUrl = remoteConfig.getString(KEY_UPDATE_URL)
if (!TextUtils.equals(currentVersion, appVersion)
&& onUpdateNeededListener != null
) {
onUpdateNeededListener.onUpdateNeeded(updateUrl)
}
}
}
private fun getAppVersion(context: Context): String {
var result = ""
try {
result = context.packageManager
.getPackageInfo(context.packageName, 0).versionName
result = result.replace("[a-zA-Z]|-".toRegex(), "")
} catch (e: PackageManager.NameNotFoundException) {
Log.e(TAG, e.message!!)
}
return result
}
class Builder(private val context: Context) {
private var onUpdateNeededListener: OnUpdateNeededListener? = null
fun onUpdateNeeded(onUpdateNeededListener: OnUpdateNeededListener?): Builder {
this.onUpdateNeededListener = onUpdateNeededListener
return this
}
fun build(): ForceUpdateChecker {
return ForceUpdateChecker(context, onUpdateNeededListener)
}
fun check(): ForceUpdateChecker {
val forceUpdateChecker = build()
forceUpdateChecker.check()
return forceUpdateChecker
}
}
companion object {
private val TAG = ForceUpdateChecker::class.java.simpleName
const val KEY_UPDATE_REQUIRED = "force_update_required"
const val KEY_CURRENT_VERSION = "force_update_current_version"
const val KEY_UPDATE_URL = "force_update_store_url"
fun with(context: Context): Builder {
return Builder(context)
}
}}

Call this like this in baseActivity (or from your landing page just not in splash screen)

ForceUpdateChecker.with(this).onUpdateNeeded(this).check();

In application on create add this

val firebaseRemoteConfig = FirebaseRemoteConfig.getInstance()
// set in-app defaults
val remoteConfigDefaults: MutableMap<String, Any> = HashMap()
remoteConfigDefaults[ForceUpdateChecker.KEY_UPDATE_REQUIRED] = false
remoteConfigDefaults[ForceUpdateChecker.KEY_CURRENT_VERSION] = "1.0"
remoteConfigDefaults[ForceUpdateChecker.KEY_UPDATE_URL] =
"https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.com.classified.pems"
firebaseRemoteConfig.setDefaultsAsync(remoteConfigDefaults)
firebaseRemoteConfig.fetch(60) // fetch every minutes
.addOnCompleteListener { task ->
if (task.isSuccessful) {
Log.d(TAG, "remote config is fetched.")
firebaseRemoteConfig.fetchAndActivate()
}
}