how to upload firebase images to web using local emulator? - node.js

Question

I'm trying to upload some images to a firebase storage bucket,
and trying to run the code locally in the firebase emulator.
With most examples I'll get an error like:
"Unhandled error FirebaseError: Firebase: Need to provide options, when not being deployed to hosting via source.
(app/no-options). at initializeApp
I tried this: https://firebase.google.com/docs/admin/setup
const defaultApp = initializeApp({ credential: applicationDefault() })
Which may or not be working.
I think this creates an authed app (maybe?) but if I later use
const storage = getStorage() I get the same auth error.
So next, I tried using the defaultApp for next steps, like:
const storage = defaultApp.storage();
that doesn't error, but it returns something different from getStorage, that I can't seem to use for other needed things like getting a ref
as per examples https://firebase.google.com/docs/storage/web/upload-files
So it's not clear how to upload files to firebase from the local simulator.
my full function looks like this:
import cuid from "cuid";
import {
getStorage,
ref,
uploadBytes,
uploadBytesResumable,
getDownloadURL
} from "firebase/storage";
import { admin, defaultApp } from '../utils/firebaseInit'
export function saveToBucket(url: string): string {
const normalStorage = getStorage() // Gets a FirebaseStorage instance for the given Firebase app. but NOT AUTHED
const defaultStorage = defaultApp.storage(); // Gets the default FirebaseStorage instance.
const storageRef = ref(normalStorage)
const bucketPath = `personas-out/img-${cuid()}.jpg`
const bucket = defaultStorage.bucket();
// const bucketRef = bucket.ref(); // Property 'ref' does not exist on type 'Bucket'.ts(2339)
const metadata = {
contentType: 'image/jpeg'
};
const imageRef = ref(storageRef, bucketPath);
const file = new File([url], bucketPath, {
type: "image/jpeg",
});
// will happen in the background?
uploadBytesResumable(imageRef, file, metadata)
.then((snapshot: any) => {
console.log('Uploaded', snapshot);
});
return bucketPath
}

Answer 1

You're not supposed to use the Firebase client SDK (firebase/storage) in nodejs code. The client SDKs are meant to work in a browser only. For nodejs code that runs on a backend (which is what you're doing when you deploy to Cloud Functions), you should use the Firebase Admin SDK. The API it exposes for Storage is essentially a thin wrapper around the Google Cloud Storage nodejs library.