Firebase npm module incompability with new 0.37

Description

Until version 0.36 React native was compatible with Firebase javascript library. https://www.npmjs.com/package/firebase

When you register a user, Firebase basically persists this information for you. Now on version 0.37, this information is not available any more. Thus, the user has to login every time that he opens the application.

There is no release notes that could justify this behavior. It seems to me that this is undesirable side effect.

Reproduction

Add firebase 3.6.0 on your package.json. Do any simple firebase example.

var firebase = require('firebase/app');
require('firebase/auth');
require('firebase/database');
 
var app = firebase.initializeApp({ ... });
this.FirebaseAuth = this.FirebaseApp.auth();
this.FirebaseAuth.signInWithEmailAndPassword('[e-mail]', '12345678')
// ...

then open and close your application try to

var firebase = require('firebase/app');
require('firebase/auth');
require('firebase/database');
 
var app = firebase.initializeApp({ ... });
this.FirebaseAuth = this.FirebaseApp.auth();
this.FirebaseAuth.currentUser

The current user gonna be null.

Solution

No idea.

Additional Information

This situation is not happening when using version 0.36 I couldn’t figure out, based on release notes what affect the firebase behavior. It affects only iOS.

• React Native version: 0.37
• Platform: iOS.
• Operating System: MacOS.
• Packages:

    "firebase": "^3.6.0",
    "react": "15.3.2",
    "react-native": "0.37.0",
    "react-native-datepicker": "^1.4.2",
    "react-native-fbsdk": "^0.3.0",
    "react-native-fcm": "^2.3.2",
    "react-native-fetch-blob": "^0.10.0",
    "react-native-google-signin": "^0.8.1",
    "react-native-i18n": "^0.1.1",
    "react-native-image-picker": "^0.23.0",
    "react-native-keyboard-spacer": "^0.3.0",
    "react-native-swipe-list-view": "^0.3.1"
  

[channing-google]

Hello, I’m from the Firebase team. Firebase checks if navigator.product==“ReactNative” to execute some RN-specific code. It seems that 0.37.0 changed navigator.product to be “Gecko” (at least on my machine), so Firebase thinks it’s in a web browser environment.

[starovoitovs]

Downgrading to 0.36.0 fixed the issue for now.