Building Agentic Apps with Angular and Vertex AI in Firebase live!

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will guide you through building an AI-powered e-commerce application using Angular and Vertex AI within Firebase. This integration will enhance your app's capabilities, allowing for smarter user interactions and data processing. By following the steps outlined below, you'll learn how to set up your project, integrate Vertex AI, and deploy your application effectively.

Step 1: Set Up Your Angular Project

• Install Angular CLI if you haven't already:

  npm install -g @angular/cli
  

• Create a new Angular project:

  ng new my-ecommerce-app
  

• Navigate into your project directory:

  cd my-ecommerce-app
  

• Start the Angular development server to ensure everything is set up correctly:

  ng serve
  

• Open your browser and go to http://localhost:4200 to see your new application running.

Step 2: Integrate Firebase into Your Angular App

• Install Firebase and AngularFire:

  npm install firebase @angular/fire
  

• Create a Firebase project in the Firebase console and register your web app.
• Copy your Firebase configuration details from the console and add them to your environment.ts file:

  export const environment = {
    production: false,
    firebaseConfig: {
      apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
      authDomain: "YOUR_PROJECT_ID.firebaseapp.com",
      projectId: "YOUR_PROJECT_ID",
      storageBucket: "YOUR_PROJECT_ID.appspot.com",
      messagingSenderId: "YOUR_MESSAGING_SENDER_ID",
      appId: "YOUR_APP_ID"
    }
  };
  

• Initialize Firebase in your app by modifying app.module.ts:

  import { AngularFireModule } from '@angular/fire';
  import { AngularFireAuthModule } from '@angular/fire/auth';
  import { environment } from '../environments/environment';
  
  @NgModule({
    imports: [
      AngularFireModule.initializeApp(environment.firebaseConfig),
      AngularFireAuthModule,
      // other imports
    ],
    // other properties
  })
  export class AppModule { }
  

Step 3: Set Up Vertex AI

• Visit the Google Cloud console and enable the Vertex AI API.
• Create a service account and download the JSON key file.
• Install the Google Cloud SDK if you need to interact with Google Cloud services from your command line.
• In your Angular app, set up a service to handle API calls to Vertex AI:

  import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
  import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
  import { environment } from '../environments/environment';
  
  @Injectable({
    providedIn: 'root',
  })
  export class VertexAIService {
    constructor(private http: HttpClient) {}
  
    callVertexAI(data: any) {
      return this.http.post('YOUR_VERTEX_AI_ENDPOINT', data);
    }
  }
  

Step 4: Build AI Features

• Define the AI features you want to implement (e.g., product recommendations, customer support chatbots).
• Use the Vertex AI service you created to interact with the AI model.
• For example, to get product recommendations, call the service method when a user interacts with the app:

  this.vertexAIService.callVertexAI(userData).subscribe(response => {
    this.recommendations = response;
  });
  

Step 5: Deploy Your Application

• Use Firebase Hosting to deploy your Angular app. First, install the Firebase CLI:

  npm install -g firebase-tools
  

• Log in to Firebase with your Google account:

  firebase login
  

• Initialize Firebase in your project:

  firebase init
  

• Select Hosting and choose your project.
• Build your Angular app for production:

  ng build --prod
  

• Deploy your app:

  firebase deploy
  

Conclusion

You’ve now built and deployed an AI-powered e-commerce application using Angular and Vertex AI in Firebase. Key points to remember include setting up your Angular project, integrating Firebase, and utilizing Vertex AI to enhance user experience. Next, consider exploring more advanced features or optimization techniques to further improve your application. Happy coding!