Deployment Strategy Guide

🎯 Overview

This project uses a multi-environment deployment strategy with Firebase Hosting Channels:

main branch → Production (live)
develop branch → Staging
feature/* branches → Temporary preview URLs
Pull Requests → PR preview URLs (7-day expiration)

🌐 Environment URLs

Production

• URL: https://your-project-id.web.app
• Branch: main
• Deployment: Automatic on push
• Includes: Functions, Rules, Full deployment

Staging

• URL: https://your-project-id—staging.web.app
• Branch: develop
• Deployment: Automatic on push
• Purpose: Test features before production

PR Previews

• URL: https://your-project-id—pr-{number}.web.app
• Trigger: Pull request opened/updated
• Expires: 7 days
• Purpose: Review changes before merging

🔄 Recommended Git Workflow

1. Feature Development

# Create feature branch from develop
git checkout develop
git pull origin develop
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

# Make changes and push
git add .
git commit -m "Add new feature"
git push origin feature/new-feature

2. Create Pull Request

• Target: develop branch
• Preview URL will be automatically created
• Share preview URL for review

3. Merge to Staging

# After PR approval
git checkout develop
git merge feature/new-feature
git push origin develop

• Staging site updates automatically

4. Deploy to Production

# After testing on staging
git checkout main
git pull origin main
git merge develop
git push origin main

• Production deploys automatically

🚀 Quick Commands

View All Preview Channels

firebase hosting:channel:list

Create Manual Preview

firebase hosting:channel:deploy preview-name --expires 7d

Delete Preview Channel

firebase hosting:channel:delete preview-name

📋 Benefits of This Approach

1. Safety: Never deploy untested code to production
2. Collaboration: Share preview URLs for feedback
3. Testing: Test in staging before production
4. Rollback: Easy to revert if issues arise
5. Parallel Development: Multiple features can have their own previews

🛡️ Protection Rules

Consider adding these GitHub branch protection rules:

For main branch:

• Require pull request reviews
• Require status checks to pass
• Require branches to be up to date
• Include administrators

For develop branch:

• Require pull request reviews
• Require status checks to pass

🔍 Monitoring Deployments

Check Deployment Status

# View all hosting sites
firebase hosting:sites:list

# View specific channel
firebase hosting:channel:list

Access Different Environments

• Production: https://your-project-id.web.app
• Staging: https://your-project-id—staging.web.app
• PR Preview: Check PR comments for URL

💡 Best Practices

1. Always test in staging before merging to main
2. Use PR previews for code reviews
3. Keep staging in sync with production data
4. Tag releases in Git for tracking
5. Document breaking changes in PR descriptions

🚨 Emergency Rollback

If something goes wrong in production:

# Quick rollback to previous commit
git checkout main
git reset --hard HEAD~1
git push --force-with-lease origin main

# Or revert specific commit
git revert <commit-hash>
git push origin main

📊 Cost Considerations

• Preview Channels: Free, but count against hosting quota
• Multiple Sites: No additional cost
• Build Minutes: Each deployment uses GitHub Actions minutes
• Storage: Preview channels use Firebase Hosting storage

🔧 Configuration

The deployment strategy is configured in:

• .github/workflows/deploy-preview.yml - Main deployment workflow
• firebase.json - Firebase configuration
• Branch protection rules in GitHub settings