Build Instagram to Master Swift 4 and Firebase

Install and integrate Firebase into an iOS app by creating a Firebase project, adding the iOS app with its bundle ID, configuring CocoaPods, and initializing Firebase in the app delegate.

Learn to enable email sign-in with Firebase authentication, install the Firebase auth library, create users via email and password, and switch to the tab bar after successful authentication.

Sign up new users with firebase authentication by reading email and password from text fields, and store username and email under the firebase user ID in the real-time database.

Learn how to upload user profile photos to Firebase storage, link them via urls in Firebase database, and implement image picker to sign up new users.

Validate sign up inputs and disable the sign up button until username, email, and password are non empty, then implement a set user information method to push data to database.

Implement the sign in view using Firebase authentication with email and password, validate text fields, wire the sign in button, and transition to the tab bar after successful login.

Learn to log users out and enable auto sign-in with Firebase authentication by checking the current user and presenting the sign-in view when needed.

Dismiss the keyboard by touching the view and resigning the first responder, then show authentication progress with Progress HUD during sign in and sign up.

Learn to add captions to posts and save them to the database. Enable the share button only with a photo, then clear inputs and reset the selected image after sharing.

Grab post data from the Firebase database and display it in the home table view by observing child added events and using data snapshots.

Learn to model data elegantly by replacing multiple initializers with a transform post approach that uses static methods to create photo or video post instances from a data dictionary.

Design the home view for an Instagram-style app. Build a prototype post cell in a storyboard, including profile photo, username, post image, and reaction icons, with auto layout constraints.

Create and connect a custom post table view cell, then display fake data in it and enable dynamic row heights with auto layout.

Learn a scalable approach to show post authors by caching users in arrays and loading posts and users together, using placeholders and prepare for reuse to ensure smooth scrolling.

Design a comment view with a storyboard and a table view that displays comments in dynamic cells, featuring a profile image, username, and comment, all managed within a navigation controller.

Toggle the keyboard with the command key, push the comment field and send button up by adjusting the bottom constraint to the keyboard height, then revert it when it hides.

Learn to display comments for any post by passing the post ID from the home cell to the common comment view via a segue, using an updated post model.

Create post, user, and comment API classes to observe Firebase data; use a shared API struct for reusable instances, improving flexibility and scalability.

Implement a like feature by tapping the like image view, update the current user's likes with the post ID in Firebase, and reflect the status with heart icons.

Apply a scalable like system using firebase transaction block to handle concurrent likes, update the post's like count and likes list, and reflect changes in real time.

Improve the like feature by updating likes after observing new post data with a firebase snapshot to ensure reused cells show the latest like state.

Decouple views from the database by using a user api observer and current user fetch, feeding header views with safely unwrapped user data. Implement optional chaining to handle asynchronous fetches.

Construct a Firebase my posts mapping to link each user with their shared posts and fetch them via the post database using the current user id.

Discover users to follow by designing a discovery view with a table listing profiles, a navigation bar button to access it, and dynamic usernames drawn from the database.

Implement a follow and unfollow button that updates the database via a follow API, observes user relationships, and synchronizes the UI state with cached data.

Observe the database to keep follow states fresh during scrolling, avoiding stale cached data, and update the user object immediately after follow or unfollow to reflect the correct button state.

Update like information efficiently by caching a post object in the controller and passing it by reference to cells, ensuring up-to-date ui without database observers.

Design a scalable news feed by building a per-user giant feed database that mirrors posts from the current user and followed users, enabling fast loading and smooth updates.

Learn to display the news feed by mirroring posts in a feed database and querying it for the home view, with follow and unfollow updates.