Upload files to Firebase Storage using Node.js

Question

I'm trying to understand how to upload files in Firebase Storage, using Node.js. My first try was to use the Firebase library:

"use strict";

var firebase = require('firebase');

var config = {
    apiKey: "AIz...kBY",
    authDomain: "em....firebaseapp.com",
    databaseURL: "https://em....firebaseio.com",
    storageBucket: "em....appspot.com",
    messagingSenderId: "95...6"
};

firebase.initializeApp(config);

// Error: firebase.storage is undefined, so not a function
var storageRef = firebase.storage().ref();

var uploadTask = storageRef.child('images/octofez.png').put(file);

// Register three observers:
// 1. 'state_changed' observer, called any time the state changes
// 2. Error observer, called on failure
// 3. Completion observer, called on successful completion
uploadTask.on('state_changed', function(snapshot){
    ...
}, function(error) {
    console.error("Something nasty happened", error);
}, function() {
  var downloadURL = uploadTask.snapshot.downloadURL;
  console.log("Done. Enjoy.", downloadURL);
});

But it turns out that Firebase cannot upload files from the server side, as it clearly states in the docs:

Firebase Storage is not included in the server side Firebase npm module. Instead, you can use the gcloud Node.js client.

$ npm install --save gcloud

In your code, you can access your Storage bucket using:

var gcloud = require('gcloud')({ ... }); var gcs = gcloud.storage();
var bucket = gcs.bucket('<your-firebase-storage-bucket>');

• Can we use gcloud without having an account on Google Cloud Platform? How?

• If not, how come that uploading files to Firebase Storage from the client side is possible?

• Can't we just create a library that makes the same requests from the server side?

• How is Firebase Storage connected with Google Cloud Platform at all? Why Firebase allows us to upload images only from the client side?

---

My second try was to use the gcloud library, like mentioned in the docs:

var gcloud = require("gcloud");

// The following environment variables are set by app.yaml when running on GAE,
// but will need to be manually set when running locally.
// The storage client is used to communicate with Google Cloud Storage
var storage = gcloud.storage({
  projectId: "em...",
  keyFilename: 'auth.json'
});

storage.createBucket('octocats', function(err, bucket) {

    // Error: 403, accountDisabled
    // The account for the specified project has been disabled.

    // Create a new blob in the bucket and upload the file data.
    var blob = bucket.file("octofez.png");
    var blobStream = blob.createWriteStream();

    blobStream.on('error', function (err) {
        console.error(err);
    });

    blobStream.on('finish', function () {
        var publicUrl = `https://storage.googleapis.com/${bucket.name}/${blob.name}`;
        console.log(publicUrl);
    });

    fs.createReadStream("octofez.png").pipe(blobStream);
});

Solution 1

When using the firebase library on a server you would typically authorize using a service account as this will give you admin access to the Realtime database for instance. You can use the same Service Account's credentials file to authorize gcloud.

By the way: A Firebase project is essentially also a Google Cloud Platform project, you can access your Firebase project on both https://console.firebase.google.com and https://console.cloud.google.com and https://console.developers.google.com You can see your Project ID on the Firebase Console > Project Settings or in the Cloud Console Dashboard

When using the gcloud SDK make sure that you use the (already existing) same bucket that Firebase Storage is using. You can find the bucket name in the Firebase web config object or in the Firebase Storage tab. Basically your code should start like this:

var gcloud = require('gcloud');

var storage = gcloud.storage({
  projectId: '<projectID>',
  keyFilename: 'service-account-credentials.json'
});

var bucket = storage.bucket('<projectID>.appspot.com');

...

Solution 2

Firebase Storage is now supported by the admin SDK with NodeJS:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/admin/node/admin.storage

// Get the Storage service for the default app
var defaultStorage = firebaseAdmin.storage();
var bucket = defaultStorage.bucket('bucketName');
...

Solution 3

Firebase Admin SDK allows you to directly access your Google Cloud Storage.

For more detail visit Introduction to the Admin Cloud Storage API

var admin = require("firebase-admin");
var serviceAccount = require("path/to/serviceAccountKey.json");

admin.initializeApp({
    credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount),
    storageBucket: "<BUCKET_NAME>.appspot.com"
});

var bucket = admin.storage().bucket();

bucket.upload('Local file to upload, e.g. ./local/path/to/file.txt')

Solution 4

I hope It will useful for you. I uploaded one file from locally and then I added access Token using UUID after that I uploaded into firebase storage.There after I am generating download url. If we hitting that generate url it will automatically downloaded a file.

    const keyFilename="./xxxxx.json"; //replace this with api key file
    const projectId = "xxxx" //replace with your project id
    const bucketName = "xx.xx.appspot.com"; //Add your bucket name
    var mime=require('mime-types');
    const { Storage } = require('@google-cloud/storage');
    const uuidv1 = require('uuid/v1');//this for unique id generation

   const gcs = new Storage({
    projectId: projectId,
    keyFilename: './xxxx.json'
     });
    const bucket = gcs.bucket(bucketName);

    const filePath = "./sample.odp";
    const remotePath = "/test/sample.odp";
    const fileMime = mime.lookup(filePath);

//we need to pass those parameters for this function
    var upload = (filePath, remoteFile, fileMime) => {

      let uuid = uuidv1();

      return bucket.upload(filePath, {
            destination: remoteFile,
            uploadType: "media",
            metadata: {
              contentType: fileMime,
              metadata: {
                firebaseStorageDownloadTokens: uuid
              }
            }
          })
          .then((data) => {

              let file = data[0];

              return Promise.resolve("https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/" + bucket.name + "/o/" + encodeURIComponent(file.name) + "?alt=media&token=" + uuid);
          });
    }
//This function is for generation download url    
 upload(filePath, remotePath, fileMime).then( downloadURL => {
        console.log(downloadURL);

      });

Solution 5

Note that gcloud is deprecated, use google-cloud instead. You can find SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_FILE_PATH at project settings->Service Accounts.

var storage = require('@google-cloud/storage');

var gcs = storage({
    projectId: PROJECT_ID,
    keyFilename: SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_FILE_PATH
  });

// Reference an existing bucket.
var bucket = gcs.bucket(PROJECT_ID + '.appspot.com');

...

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Comments

[Ionică Bizău]

That was really helpful, but still, the root problem is still there: I cannot upload stuff using gcloud (for instance, creating a bucket) because, according to this answer, I didn't enable billing. Again, why accessing Storage via gcloud would require billing while accessing it via client side firebase would not? Thanks!

[Ionică Bizău]

I added another snippet to my question.

[Nicolas Garnier]

It seems you might need to enable billing this is true. I'll report to the team internally. There are always debates whether if we should create a Firebase specific Server SDK for Storage and for now the consensus is "no". For the billing issue: as a workaround you can enable billing and set a budget with a limit of Zero USD to avoid getting billed anything. The API itself should be free to use and the bucket that Firebase Storage uses has a free quota so things should be working.

[Ionică Bizău]

Looks like an issue to me—to enable billing, I need a billing account. For a billing account I need to sign up on Google Cloud Platform and to sign up there I need a business. All these just to upload something in Firebase Storage from the server side. I'm curious what they will say. Thanks!

[Nicolas Garnier]

Can't you create the billing account as an individual? In my case I can (I am in Switzerland). If not could you tell me which country you are located in? (This will help for the internal discussions)

[Ionică Bizău]

I'm in Romania—after accepting the terms, this page is opened https://console.cloud.google.com/freetrial where clearly states: This service can only be used for business or commercial reasons. You are responsible for assessing and reporting VAT.. At least I don't see any other way to skip that. While the VAT id is optional, the business name is mandatory.

[Ionică Bizău]

What makes me think at is: why we cannot do the same POST (or PUT etc) request from the server, in the same way like we do it on the client? Probably we can. Would I break the rules if I made one? :-)

[Nicolas Garnier]

OK I see that for Romania. For Switzerland and USA there is an option to sign up as an individual, thanks. You can always try to send your own requests but just be aware since these are undocumented they could change in non-backward compatible ways (although that's unlikely IMO).

[Ionică Bizău]

I see—probably it's better to wait for feedback from you. I wrote you an email. Thanks!

[Nicolas Garnier]

Hey Ionica, I initially missed that you are trying to create a new bucket with storage.createBucket('octocats', function(err, bucket) { you can't do that without billing (only the Firebase/App Engine bucket are free, other buckets are not). Can you try not creating a bucket and instead using the already created Firebase bucket? The bucket name is in your Firebase config storageBucket: "em....appspot.com",

[Nicolas Garnier]

Basically instead you should use this: var bucket = storage.bucket('em....appspot.com')

[Ionică Bizău]

Yay! It works. I posted here my code. You can include it in the post if you like. Thanks!

[Ionică Bizău]

Can you please take a look at this related question?

[marciokoko]

So how do I upload a nodejs app to Firebase? Because I just logged into my Firebase account which I havent used in a while and noticed that there are links to 2 recently created Google Actions projects (which is precisely what I want to move from Heroku to Firebase) that have been added automatically. But the link takes me to the console. Can I connect deploy it from my github or upload it from a terminal? Does anyone have a video link tutorial for this?

[Aero Wang]

Where is service-account-credentials.json?

[Pat Needham]

When I try this, I get TypeError: defaultStorage is not a function. With the latest firebase-admin npm library.

[Pat Needham]

var bucket = firebaseAdmin.storage().bucket('bucketName'); - that does the trick, following this as a guide: firebase.google.com/docs/storage/admin/…

[ishandutta2007]

gloud is depreicated now

[Baz]

What comes after bucket() to get a ref()? These seem to work: bucket.ref() or bucket.child('path')

[refik]

TypeError: firebase.storage is not a function

[Learn2Code]

How do i download a file on Storage ?

[Learn2Code]

How would I download an image after I do the setup as you described?

[Madhav Kumar]

By using the method getDownloadURL()

[Mohammed Alawneh]

Thanks for the answer! But can you please share an example of how to use the getDownloadURL() ? Thanks again.

[Madhav Kumar]

const destFilename = 'Local destination for file, e.g. ./local/path/to/file.txt'; const options = { // The path to which the file should be downloaded, e.g. "./file.txt" destination: destFilename, }; bucket.file('Remote file to download, e.g. file.txt').download(options) ref Downloading objects

[Madhav Kumar]

@Learn2Code the above code will download the file from storage to local.

[chirag]

TypeError: storage is not a function. Which version of @google-cloud/storage you were using? Mine is 4.5.0