CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsfirebasefirebase-admin
xiaolingxiao
xiaolingxiao

Reputation: 4895

firebase admin authentication fails on server side due to missing "private_key"

I am hosting a node.js function on google firebase, and I would like to create and update user accounts on the server side. My service account json file looks like:

{
    "apiKey"           : ""
    "authDomain"       : ""
    "databaseURL"      : ""
    "projectId"        : ""
    "storageBucket"    : ""
    "messagingSenderId": ""
}

I removed the fields for reasons. When I load the credential and create an admin instance via:

import * as admin     from 'firebase-admin'    ;
import * as functions from 'firebase-functions';

const accountKeyPath = path.join(__dirname, '../credentials/serviceAccountKey.json')
const accountKey     = require(accountKeyPath);

const firebaseAdmin = admin.initializeApp( accountKey );

The firebaseAdmin is sufficient to crud a database. However it cannot create new users unless I declare it with:

const firebaseAdmin = admin.initializeApp({
      credential: admin.credential.cert(accountKey)
    , databaseURL: "..."
});

Or so it appears. When I run this I get error:

            throw new 

error_1.FirebaseAppError(error_1.AppErrorCodes.INVALID_CREDENTIAL, errorMessage);
            ^

Error: Certificate object must contain a string "private_key" property.

This is inexplicable to me because I do not know how to get a service account json with private_key. Am I suppose to create one each time I run the server?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1958

Answers (1)

Cisco
Cisco

Reputation: 23042

Your JSON is completely incorrect for the firebase-admin SDK. Please see the docs on how to retrieve the service account JSON file: https://firebase.google.com/docs/admin/setup#add_firebase_to_your_app

It should have the following format:

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "...",
  "private_key_id": "...",
  "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
  "client_email": "...",
  "client_id": "...",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
  "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/[email protected]"
}

Edit:

I noticed you're importing firebase-functions in which case you don't need to service account JSON at all. Simply call:

admin.initializeApp(functions.config().firebase);

See https://firebase.google.com/docs/admin/setup#initialize_the_sdk

Upvotes: 2

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