How to transfer your Realtime Database to CMS in minutes
By: Enrico Ori
Tags: Import, Realtime Database, CMS, Headless Cms, Firebase

Firebase is a great service with many awesome tools. But sometimes they can be pretty tricky to handle, like Realtime Database. While it’s good if you write from app to database, if you need to do some changes quickly, you’ll need to enter the world of editing JSON. And trust me… It ain’t pretty.

While it’ll be no big deal for a developer, a content manager or someone who’s not very accustomed to the JSON format will find it hard to edit it. And it’s VERY easy to mess everything up. Also, you can’t handle images inside a JSON (you can BASE64 encode them in strings but… it’s obscene). Plus, you’ll need to use another service to upload images like Firebase Cloud Storage. Wouldn’t it be awesome to do all these things on one dashboard?

Here I’ll teach you how to transfer your whole database on the MBurger CMS, so you can more easily and quickly edit your content without getting crazy.

But first… a bit of thinking about it…

Do I need to use a headless CMS instead of RTD?

The simple answer is no, you don’t “need” to. But, a headless CMS can make your development and maintenance work much easier. And it also allows you to easily customize and improve your app. Here are some other advantages:

You can give your content manager access to all your projects without fearing that he/she’ll destroy your database. You’ll have advanced features available for content visualization like ordering, draft copies, simple relations between content, and many more… You can validate your fields, so no more characters in phone numbers fields! You can have several different elements apart from the simple “text”, like images’ references, multiple options dropdowns, markdown editor, and more.

But enough talk… Now let’s get started!

1. Export your database from Firebase

You’ll need to access your Firebase project, click on “Realtime Database” and then on the 3 dots “Export JSON”. Then, download that big text file. Ok, you’ve officially done with Firebase now.

2. Create an MBurger Account

Go here and create an MBurger account, it’s free for developers!

It only takes two minutes, but it’ll save you a lot of time later.

3. Create a new project

Click on the big + “Create new project” button on the dashboard to create a new project, then on “Import From Firebase”.

You’ll then be prompted to upload your JSON.

Once you’ve done it, MBurger will take care to create your database’s exact structure. This process may take some time, so you’ll receive an email when it’s done. It’s recommended that your database follows this guideline to speed things up.

4. Add the MBurger SDKs

Received the confirmation email? Good. Now you can give your content manager access to your MBurger project, and he/she’ll create content easily and upload media all in one dashboard. Obviously, you’ll also need to add MBurger SDKs and start using its methods for obtaining your data. You can even create data directly from the SDK!

No issue on what platform your app is on, there’s an SDK for it. Yes, even for Flutter. Check out here to know more and to install it on your app.

Well done! You’ve finally evolved from the awful world of manually edited JSONs to a full-powered CMS. Wanna know more about all the features that come with MBurger and its Engagement Platform, like sending customized push notifications and in-app messages to your users?

Discover more about MBurger here.