Firestore and Database Emulator: Initialization of an instance with a dataset

[gaeldestrem]

It would be great to have the possibility to create an instance of the Firestore emulator with a dataset.

Currently, we're doing a batch write to initialize or reset an instance of an emulator. The issue is that it takes nearly 3s for an update of 120 operations (our testing dataset).

Would it be possible to create a Firestore emulator instance from a snapshot or to improve the performances of the emulator for large updates?

[wyattades]

I agree that it would be great to load a database "snapshot" on initialization. I currently run the firestore and functions emulators locally for development, but when I seed the DB with testing data, a bunch of firestore function triggers are executed. This is pretty undesirable, so are there any plans for a feature to help with loading initial data or, even better, firestore data persistence to disk?

[samtstern]

Thanks for raising the point about wanting to seed data without functions firing. As a stopgap measure we could definitely implement a way to "turn off" functions triggers with a special call while you load data. That could be useful for certain tests too. Would you use that? But for the long term we need import/export.

…

On Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 11:54 AM Wyatt Ades ***@***.***> wrote: I agree that it would be great to load a database "snapshot" on initialization. I currently run the firestore and functions emulators locally for development, but when I seed the DB with testing data, a bunch of firestore function triggers are executed. This is pretty undesirable, so are there any plans for a feature to help with loading initial data or, even better, firestore data persistence to disk? — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1167?email_source=notifications&email_token=ACATB2VEE7BBI75HECFTE23QOIMOLA5CNFSM4G5NG5X2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOEBCGBZA#issuecomment-541352164>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACATB2WHUTO43JISN54J4U3QOIMOLANCNFSM4G5NG5XQ> .

[wyattades]

Yes that would be a good solution for now, thanks!

[anantanandgupta]

So there are no milestones set for this yet? but one thing I like now about this team here, it seems to be more active and responsive.

[anantanandgupta]

can guys please add realtime db also in scope for this along with firestore db.

[samtstern]

@anantanandgupta no milestones yet, but yes we try to be really open about out progress! And I have added the Database emulator to be in scope as well. For Database the problem is easier (JSON format) but we still need to help you "pause" the Cloud Functions

[anantanandgupta]

I know I am in good hands. But to tell you the criticality, I have designed this huge platform fully around firebase and everyone was against this a yesr back, but with my efforts i have proven till now that my decision to use firebase as the technology was not wrong. At this point it has become so big that to work on multiple features by multiple developers with a common database hosted on cloud has become impossible. So if each of us can work on a local copy of the database, it will be a lot easier and efficient.

[ryanpbrewster]

The ability to import data into the Firestore emulator (i.e., initialize it with "seed" data) should be going out with the next release. It will be a bit manual at first, we'll add better tooling in subsequent releases.

Looking into what would be necessary for the Realtime Database emulator.