firebase cannot determine project id - node.js

Question

this is the request that I made using node
// Initialize the default app
var admin = require('firebase-admin');
var app = admin.initializeApp({
credential: admin.credential.applicationDefault(),
databaseURL: process.env.FIREBASE_DATABASE
});
console.log(process.env.FIREBASE_DATABASE);
router.post('/', (req, res, next) => {
app.auth().getUserByEmail("j.100233260#gmail.com")
.then(function(userRecord) {
// See the UserRecord reference doc for the contents of userRecord.
console.log('Successfully fetched user data:', userRecord.toJSON());
res.json(userRecord.toJSON())
})
.catch(function(error) {
console.log('Error fetching user data:', error);
res.json(error)
});
}
);
I set the env var on my machine
for my firebase database I used env
given as
databaseURL: "https://fssssss.firebaseio.com",
from the firebase admin GUI ,
the error in Postman when I request this route
{
"code": "app/invalid-credential",
"message": "Failed to determine project ID: Error while making request: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND metadata.google.internal metadata.google.internal:80. Error code: ENOTFOUND"
}
I followed the docs and google returned no results, no idea what to do. thanks.

Answer 1

This isn't working the way you expect:
admin.credential.applicationDefault()
You can't use this on a server that you control without additional configuration. This only works by itself when running on Google services when you want to use the default service account for your project. When running on your own server, there is no default. You have to be explicit and download service account credentials to use during initialization. At the very least, you'll need to follow the instructions in the documentation:
To authenticate a service account and authorize it to access Firebase
services, you must generate a private key file in JSON format.
To generate a private key file for your service account:
In the Firebase console, open Settings > Service Accounts.
Click Generate New Private Key, then confirm by clicking Generate Key.
Securely store the JSON file containing the key.
When authorizing via a service account, you have two choices for
providing the credentials to your application. You can either set the
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable, or you can
explicitly pass the path to the service account key in code. The first
option is more secure and is strongly recommended.
So you will need to download the service account file, set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS correctly, then your code will work. The service account credentials are not optional.

Answer 2

Method 1: Just pass the path of your service account key
const firebase_admin = require('firebase-admin');
const serviceAccount = require("/path/to/yourserviceaccountkey.json");
const admin = firebase_admin.initializeApp({
credential: firebase_admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount);
});
Method 2 (more secure): The method above is considered less secure than the method below:
const firebase_admin = require('firebase-admin');
const admin = firebase_admin.initializeApp({
credential: admin.credential.applicationDefault()
});
Then run the app like this:
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/yourserviceaccountkey.json node index.js
Or through a package.json script:
"start" : "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/yourserviceaccountkey.json node index.js"
You can also set the environmental variable likes this in a terminal session, before you run Node:
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"
References
Add the Firebase Admin SDK to your server

Answer 3

If you followed the instructions for initializing the SDK by setting the environment variable using this command:
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"
You may have to double check that the name of the service account file matches the path you downloaded.
For example when I downloaded the service-account-file.json, mine was named my-firebase-project.json, but I used the export command without updating the filename.
Once that was fixed, the issue disappeared.

Answer 4

You need to add projectId
admin.initializeApp({
credential: admin.credential.applicationDefault(),
projectId: `xxx-xxxxxx-xxx`, // this line
databaseURL: environment.firebaseDbUrl
});
Note: You'll get the projectId from firebase project settings page. See image

Answer 5

Reason why you are getting this error even after setting the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable correctly is because it needs to be set in every session when you run the firebaseAdmin initialize method. Hence you should set it every time using below in your package.json file:
"scripts": {
"build": "npx tsc",
"start": "export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/Users/abc/Documents/Code/my_folder/my_app_6abcd31ffa3a.json npm run build && ts-node index.ts",
"test": "test"
},