Recipes

Short, practical examples for common use cases.

Live Dashboard

Connect Firestore data to TouchDesigner visuals. Each document in a metrics collection drives a text display.

# In a callbacks DAT:
def onFirestoreChange(collection, doc_id, change_type, payload):
    if collection == 'metrics' and change_type != 'removed':
        # Update a text TOP with the latest value
        text_op = op(f'display_{doc_id}')
        if text_op:
            text_op.par.text = f"{payload.get('label', doc_id)}: {payload.get('value', '')}"

Reference individual cells directly in parameter expressions:

# On a Text TOP's "text" parameter:
op.firestore.op('collections/metrics')[1, 'payload']

Remote Control

Use a Firestore controls collection to remotely trigger actions in TouchDesigner.

def onFirestoreChange(collection, doc_id, change_type, payload):
    if collection != 'controls':
        return

    if doc_id == 'scene' and change_type == 'modified':
        scene_name = payload.get('active', '')
        if scene_name:
            op('scene_switcher').par.index = int(payload.get('index', 0))

    if doc_id == 'command' and payload.get('action') == 'reset':
        op('main_comp').par.reinitextensions.pulse()
        # Clear the command so it doesn't re-trigger
        op.firestore.PushDoc('controls', 'command', {'action': ''})

Batch Upload from a Table

Seed a Firestore collection from an existing TouchDesigner table.

# Read from a tableDAT and push each row as a document
source = op('my_data_table')
ops = []
for row in range(1, source.numRows):
    doc_id = source[row, 'id'].val
    ops.append({
        'collection': 'catalog',
        'doc_id': doc_id,
        'op_type': 'set',
        'payload': {
            'name': source[row, 'name'].val,
            'price': float(source[row, 'price'].val),
            'category': source[row, 'category'].val,
        }
    })

op.firestore.PushBatch(ops)

Offline-First Installation

Configure the COMP so that your project works without internet, syncing when connectivity returns.

1. Set Enable Cache to On
2. Set Hydrate on Start to On
3. Run the project once with internet to populate the cache

On subsequent launches without internet:

• Bootstrap skips (venv already exists)
• Connect fails, circuit breaker opens
• Hydration populates tableDATs from the SQLite cache
• Any local writes are queued to SQLite
• When internet returns and the circuit half-opens, everything syncs

Multiple Firestore Databases

GCP supports named databases in addition to the default. To connect to a named database, set the Database ID parameter:

Database ID: my-analytics-db

To use multiple databases simultaneously, add multiple Firestore COMPs to your project -- each with a different Database ID and the same (or different) service account key.