Firestore is a NoSQL document database built for automatic scaling, high performance, and ease of application development. It is the newest version of Datastore and introduces several improvements over Datastore. Because Firestore in Datastore mode (Datastore) is optimized for server use cases and for App Engine, we recommend using Datastore for databases that will be used primarily by App Engine apps. Firestore in Native mode is most useful for mobile and real-time notification use cases. For more information about Firestore modes, see Choosing between Native Mode and Datastore mode.
This document describes how to use the Cloud Client Libraries to store and retrieve data in a Datastore mode database.
Prerequisites and setup
- Set up your environment and project to understand how apps are structured in App Engine. Write down and save your project ID, because you will need it to run the sample application described in this document.
Clone the repository
Download (clone) the sample:
Edit project configuration and set dependencies
Application code
Using index.yaml files
The sample app performs queries. More elaborate
Datastore mode queries require one or more
indexes, which you must specify in an
index.yaml file
that you upload along with your app. This file may be created manually, or
generated automatically while testing your app locally.
Local testing
If you need to develop and test your application locally, you can use the Datastore mode emulator.
For more information
For complete information on Datastore mode, including optimizations and concepts, see the Firestore in Datastore mode documentation.