Firebase

Why Firebase instead of a different noSQL

This website is based around firebase, using the authentication, database, storage, hosting, and functions tools that firebase provides. There were many reasons for chosing this approach over creating a custom web-server and noSQL database. By using firebase, it was easier to run locally, without requiring a database like MongoDB to be installed on the local computer. There are no problems with the corporate firewall, preventing access to MongoDB URIs. Additionally, any globally-installed npm packages, like Vue.js, Angular.js, or React.js would also need administrator approval to be installed locally. Installing these front-end tools on a server and ssh-ing to send new files was also impossible, as the corporate network would not allow ssh to unknown ip's. Therefore, in order to develop this website as quickly as possible and with the tools given, webpack was used to create a static website, using jquery and other libraries to run client-side scripts. There is no server for the main functionality of the website, and email-notifications and user auditing was completed using cloud functions. By not having a server to run the main website functions, it is much easier to develop locally. But the drawback is that security measures are lacking unless everything is carefully planned.