Quickstart

This page shows you how to store and query data in Firestore in Datastore mode using the Google Cloud Console.

Before you begin

• Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

• In the Google Cloud Console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

  Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

  Go to project selector

• In the Google Cloud Console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

  Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

  Go to project selector

• If you are not the project owner, your account requires the following permissions to complete this quickstart:

  • Your account requires the Datastore Owner role which contains the datastore.databases.create permission needed to create a Datastore mode instance.
  • Datastore mode requires an active App Engine application. If the project doesn't have an application, this quickstart creates one for you. In that case, you require the appengine.applications.create permission. The project owner can assign this permission with an IAM custom role.

Create a database

To create a new database instance, open the Datastore section in the Google Cloud Console:
Go to the Datastore page

Firestore: Native Mode or Datastore Mode

When you create a new Firestore database, you have the option to use Firestore in Native Mode or in Datastore mode.

Warning: Once you select a database mode and execute the first write on the database, you cannot switch. You can't use both Native Mode and Datastore Mode in the same project.

Select from one of the database options:

• Firestore in Native Mode

  Use Firestore in Native mode for mobile and web apps. To get started with Firestore, continue in the Firestore Quickstart.

• Firestore in Datastore Mode

  Use Firestore in Datastore Mode for new server projects. Select Firestore in Datastore Mode to use the improved Firestore storage layer while keeping Datastore mode system behavior.

  Note: At a future date, all existing Datastore projects will be automatically upgraded to Firestore in Datastore mode.

For more guidance on selecting a database mode and for a feature-by-feature comparison, see choosing between Native Mode and Datastore Mode.

Store data

1. Go to the Datastore Entities page in the Google Cloud Console.
   Go to the Datastore Entities page
   This page allows you to store, query, update, and delete data.
2. Click Create entity.

3. If you see the following page, you need to select a location. (Go to the next step if you do not see this page.)
   

   Warning: You cannot change the location after it has been saved.

   

   The location applies to both Datastore mode databases and App Engine apps for your Google Cloud project.
   To save a location, select one of the location values and click Next.

4. On the Create an entity page, use [default] for Namespace.

5. Type Task for Kind.

6. Under Properties use the Add property button to add these properties:

   Name	Type	Value	Indexed
   description	String	Learn Google Datastore mode
   created	Date and time	(today's date)	✓
   done	Boolean	False	✓

   Your creation page should now look like this:

   

7. Click Create. The console displays the Task entity that you just created.

You just stored data in your database!

Run a query

Datastore mode databases support querying data by kind or by Google Query Language (GQL); the instructions below walk you through the steps of doing both.

Run kind queries

1. Click Query by kind.
2. Select Task as the kind.

The query results show the Task entity that you created.

Next, add a query filter to restrict the results to entities that meet specific criteria:

1. Click Filter entities.
2. In the dropdown lists, select done, is a boolean, and that is false.
3. Click Apply filters. The results show the Task entity that you created, since its done value is false.
4. Now try a query of done, is a boolean, and that is true. The results do not include the Task entity that you created, because its done value is not true.

Run GQL queries

1. Click Query by GQL.
2. Enter SELECT * FROM Task as the query. Note that Task is case sensitive.
3. Click Run query.

The query results show the Task entity that you created.

Tip

The GQL query editor supports autocompletion for kinds: When you need to type a kind name, press Ctrl+Space to see a list of the available kinds. Up to 300 alphabetically sorted kinds can appear in the list. For better matches of kinds, type one or more characters.

Again, add a query filter to restrict the results to entities that meet specific criteria:

1. Run a query such as SELECT * FROM Task WHERE done=false. Note that Task and done are case sensitive. The results show the Task entity that you created, since its done value is false.
2. Now run a query such as SELECT * FROM Task WHERE done=true. The results do not include the Task entity that you created, because its done value is not true.

Clean up

1. Click Query by kind and ensure Task is the selected kind.
2. Click Clear filters.
3. Select the Task entity that you created
4. Click Delete, and then confirm you want to delete the Task entity. Once deleted, the entity is permanently removed from your database.

That's it, you completed this quickstart!

What's next

• Learn more about Datastore Queries.
• Learn more about Datastore mode databases.