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Quick start

Let's discover Firebase Express SDK in less than 5 minutes.

Create a new project

Set up an Express server​

First, create a new directory and navigate into it:

mkdir firebase-express-tutorial
cd firebase-express-tutorial

Initialize a new Node.js project:

npm init -y

Install the dependencies:

npm install express cors body-parser

Install the dev dependencies:

npm install -D nodemon

Install the Firebase Express SDK:

npm install firebase-express-sdk

Create a new file named index.js and add the following code:

const express = require("express");
const cors = require("cors");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const { FirebaseExpressSdk } = require("firebase-express-sdk");

// We will be back to this later

Create a Firebase project​

Go to the Firebase console and create a new project.

Create a new project

Add Cloud Firestore to your project.

Add firestore to your project

For more details about setting up Cloud Firestore, check out the official documentation.​

Generate a service account​

Go to the service accounts page and generate a new private key.

Generate a new private key

Save the file in your project directory and name it serviceAccount.json.

The project directory should look like this:​

.
├── node_modules
├── serviceAccount.json
├── index.js
├── package.json
└── package-lock.json

Initialize the Firebase Express SDK​

Add the following code to the index.js file:

const express = require("express");
const cors = require("cors");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const { FirebaseExpressSdk } = require("firebase-express-sdk");
const serviceAccountFile = require("./serviceAccount.json");

const app = express();
const port = 3001;

app.use(cors());
app.use(bodyParser.json());

const collections = {
  users: {
    documentAttributes: ["name", "age", "email"],
  },
};

const firebaseExpressSdk = new FirebaseExpressSdk({
  app, // Express app
  serviceAccountFile, // Firebase service account file
  collections, // Collections to expose,
  port, // Port to listen to (default: 3000)
});

firebaseExpressSdk.addActions([
  {
    collection: "users",
    endpoint: "/api/getUsers",
    request: {
      type: "GET",
    },
  },
  {
    collection: "users",
    endpoint: "/api/addUser",
    request: {
      type: "POST",
    },
  },
]);

Start the server​

Add the following script to the package.json file:

"scripts": {
  "start": "nodemon index.js"
}

Start the server:

npm start

Test the endpoints and enjoy!​

Make a GET request to http://localhost:3000/api/getUsers and you should get an empty array.

Make a POST request to http://localhost:3000/api/addUser with the following body:

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "age": 25,
  "email": "johndoe@john.com"
}

Make a GET request to http://localhost:3000/api/getUsers and you should get the following response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": [
    {
      "name": "John Doe",
      "age": 25,
      "email": "johndoe@john.com"
    }
  ]
}