Firebase architecture – PRC Platform

Maintainer overview of server SDK and client script surfaces.

Surfaces

PHP (server)                         JS (client)
────────────                         ───────────
\PRC\Platform\Firebase               @prc/firebase script module   [modern]
  $this->db   Realtime Database        credentials via script_module_data filter
  $this->auth Firebase Auth

                                     firebase script handle          [legacy]
                                       window.firebase* globals
                                       prcFirebaseConfig localization

Use Firebase for outside user data written from many clients. Use MySQL for PRC editorial data.

Server

includes/class-firebase.php initializes the Kreait SDK from firebase-service-account.json in WPCOM_VIP_PRIVATE_DIR (generated by bin/setup/generate-firebase-service-account.sh; never commit).

Client modern module

Assets registers @prc/firebase via wp_register_script_module. Config injects through script_module_data_@prc/firebase. When apiKey is missing (common on alpha/staging without env vars), src/index.js skips initializeApp / getAuth so anonymous loads do not throw auth/invalid-api-key.

Client legacy handle

On wp_enqueue_scripts / admin_enqueue_scripts (priority 0), the firebase handle loads Firebase 10 compat and localizes prcFirebaseConfig and prcFirebaseInteractivesConfig. Prefer the script module for new blocks.

Required constants

Defined in vip-config/ (production vs __DEV variants):

PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_KEY
PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN
PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_AUTH_DB
PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_INTERACTIVES_DB
PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_DATA_TABLE_BUILDER_DB (server-side data-table block reads; see plugin README)
PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID
WPCOM_VIP_PRIVATE_DIR

Production PRC_PLATFORM_FIREBASE_DATA_TABLE_BUILDER_DB currently points at prc-app-prod-data-table-builder until the Firebase project cutover to prc-platform-prod; update the VIP env var value only when that migration is ready.

Build

npx turbo build --filter=@prc/firebase

Runs build:module and build:compat webpack configs.