CSE 2200: Advanced Programming

Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

In this lab tutorial, we will implement login and registration system in Android applications
using Firebase Authentication.

Firebase is a popular choice for Android developers because it offers a suite of cloud-based
services that make app development easier, faster, and more scalable. Key features include:

1. Real-time Database - Sync data across users instantly.

2. Authentication - Simplify user sign-in (email, social, etc.).
3. Cloud Storage - Store user-generated content securely.
4. Cloud Firestore - Scalable database for complex queries.
5. Push Notifications - Engage users with Firebase Cloud Messaging.
6. Crashlytics - Real-time crash reporting.
7. Analytics - Track user behavior and app usage.
8. In-App Messaging - Send messages to active users.
9. Remote Config - Update app features without releases.
10. Performance Monitoring - Track app performance issues.
11. ML Kit - Add machine learning features easily.

Firebase helps build secure, scalable apps quickly with less backend work. We will use Firebase
Authentication in this task.

Step-1: go to https://console.firebase.google.com/ > Sign in through your google ID > Click

“Getting Started” > “Create a Project with name and id” > You can turn off Analytics option for
now. Then you will have the below interface in your console.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

Then go to “Build”> Choose “Authentication” > “Get Started”

Now we will implement Authentication using “Email/Password”.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

Once you save this, Step-1 is complete.

Step-2: Now you need to go to Android Studio, Create an empty project. Go to “Tools”. Choose
Firebase.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication
Now with the assistant window, go to Authentication and Enable “Authenticate using a custom
Authentication System”.

Step-3:
 Click “Connect your app to Firebase”, a pop up window will be opened in your browser.
Choose the app in your firebase control that you have created in Step-1.
 Click “Add the Firebase Authentication SDK to your app”.
 Once both of the process are marked done, you can check in the Gradle files to see if the
dependencies are added properly. If not, you have to do it manually.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

Step-4: Now you have ‘MainActivity’ and ‘layout_main.xml’ in your android project. Create
two more activities for Sign Up and Profile Page. You can design your login, signup and profile
page as per your requirements. For now, you can use the xml files provided and make necessary
changes in your app. (activity_main.xml, activity_sign_up.xml, activity_logout.xml)
Step-5: Add the action bar to your app. Go to ‘AndroidManifest.xml’ and replace the theme
portion to this line:
android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"

go to each activity classes and inside ‘onCreate’ function add the following line:

this.setTitle("Sign In"); //inside main activity class

Add similarly to other activity classes too.

Step-6: (Inside SignUpActivity.java)

Now initialize objects for your EditText, TextView and Button widgets that you have created in
your layout and connect their IDs. In addition to these objects you also need to initialize the
ProgressBar and FirebaseAuth objects.

ProgressBar signUpProgressBar;
FirebaseAuth mAuth;

And inside ‘onCreate’ function:

mAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance();
signUpProgressBar = findViewById(R.id.sprogressBar);

The line mAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance(); is used in Android development with

Firebase to initialize an instance of the FirebaseAuth class, which handles authentication for the
app. You will now be able to use various functions with your mAuth object.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

Step-7: (Inside SignUpActivity.java)

Implement Button click listener method for your “Sign Up” button and TextView click listener
method for your ‘Sign In’ redirect text. Inside the Sign in Redirect click method, you can
change the intent to your sign in activity.

signInRedirect.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),
MainActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
});

Now inside the onClick method of the Sign Up button:

Set the visibility of the progress bar to visible.

signUpProgressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

Add various constraints to check the user input is according to your requirements.
String email, password;
email = String.valueOf(signUpEmailEditText.getText());
password = String.valueOf(signUpPasswordEditText.getText());
if(TextUtils.isEmpty(email)){
Toast.makeText(SignUpActivity.this, "Enter Email",
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
return;
}
if(TextUtils.isEmpty(password)){
Toast.makeText(SignUpActivity.this, "Enter Password",
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
return;
}

Then you need to do the Firebase authentication task for Sign up. go to
https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/android/password-auth and copy the following code to
paste inside the onClick method.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

After copying the code segment should look like this:

mAuth.createUserWithEmailAndPassword(email, password)
.addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<AuthResult>() {
@Override
public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<AuthResult> task) {
if (task.isSuccessful()) {
// Sign in success, update UI with the signed-in user's information

} else {
// If sign in fails, display a message to the user.

}
}
});

Add the necessary packages by clicking Alt+Enter if any portion of the code segment is Red.
Now if the “sign up” is successful, you can add any Toast Message and also change the intent
to your sign in activity class. Also, you can show Toast Message when the “sign up” attempt
fails.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

Important: Add the following function before ‘onCreate’ function:

@Override
public void onStart() {
super.onStart();
FirebaseUser currentUser = mAuth.getCurrentUser();
if(currentUser != null){
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), logout.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
}

This code is part of an Android Activity that checks if a user is already logged in when the
activity starts.

 onStart(): This method runs every time the activity becomes visible to the user.
 mAuth.getCurrentUser(): Checks if a user is currently logged in (returns null if no user is
logged in).
 If currentUser is not null: It means the user is logged in. The code then:
o Creates an Intent to navigate to the logout activity.
o Starts the logout activity.
o Calls finish() to close the current activity.

This code effectively redirects logged-in users to the logout activity.

Step-8: (Inside MainActivity.java)

Same as Step-6. Make necessary changes for sign in instead of sign up.

Step-9: (Inside MainActivity.java)

Same as Step-7. Make necessary changes for sign in instead of sign up.

Then you need to do the Firebase authentication task for log in. go to
https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/android/password-auth and copy the following code to
paste inside the onClick method.

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication

After copying the code segment should look like this:

mAuth.signInWithEmailAndPassword(email, password)
.addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<AuthResult>() {
@Override
public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<AuthResult> task) {
signInprogressBar.setVisibility(View.GONE);
if (task.isSuccessful()) {
// Sign in success, update UI with the signed-in user's information
} else {
// If sign in fails, display a message to the user.
}
}
});

Add the necessary packages by clicking Alt+Enter if any portion of the code segment is Red.
Important: Add the following function before ‘onCreate’ function:
@Override
public void onStart() {
super.onStart();
FirebaseUser currentUser = mAuth.getCurrentUser();
if(currentUser != null){
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), logout.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
}

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET

 CSE 2200: Advanced Programming
Lab Tutorial: Firebase Authentication
Step-10: (Inside logout.java)

Initialize objects and connect IDs for your Button (logout), TextView (to show email). Also
initialize FirebaseAuth and FirebaseUser object too.

FirebaseAuth mAuth;
FirebaseUser user;

And inside ‘onCreate’ function:

mAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance();
user = mAuth.getCurrentUser();
// user stores the information associated with the user currently logged in.

So you can check if the user is NULL or not. If null, you can switch the activity to sign in page.
Otherwise you can display the email of the user.

if (user == null){
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), MainActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
else {
showEmail.setText(user.getEmail());
}

Implement ‘Log Out’ button click listener and inside onClick method: sign out the mAuth
instance and change the intent to sign in page.
mAuth.signOut();
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), MainActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();

The login and registration system in Android applications using Firebase Authentication is
now complete. Run the app and check its functionality. Thank you. 😊

Kazi Saeed Alam, Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, KUET