expand the documentation on how to use firebase-tools as a module

[SJAnderson]

A lot of the commands you can do via CLI are very hard to figure out how to do programmatically when loading it as a module. Updated documentation on syntax, available commands, etc, would be helpful.

Questions I have (or had but soluved):

• how to print a list of all keys using tools.functions.config.get
• how to deploy functions
• how to get a list of all functions deployed

  note on this one: had to really dig into cloudfunctions.js, api.js and auth.js. turns out this functionality is available inside the package, just not surfaced in firebase-tools. this is really helpful.

[gerhardcit]

There is a sample

var client = require('firebase-tools');
client.list().then(function(data) {
  console.log(data);
}).catch(function(err) {
  // handle error
});

But I had to install firebase-tools (without -g) for that to work.

Tried something like this

client.database.get('/app-settings/test').then((data) => {
    console.log(data);
}).catch(function (err) {
    console.log(err);
});

due to the lack of documentation but got this error

TypeError: Cannot create property 'project' on string '/app-settings/test'
    at Command._prepare (/Users/someone/Documents/test/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/command.js:104:19)

A proper set of samples of using this will be great please.

[ahaverty]

I'm struggling to get anything working here too.
@SJAnderson Can you post some of your examples here? Particularly the config get (and set if you have it) 🙏

[jesperp]

I struggled with this until I dug into the source. So, until we have docs for this I think this works:

• Arguments are passed in to the function as usual
• Options (--foo bar) need to be passed in as part of an options object
• The options object must be passed in as the last argument
• You always merge global options with the command options
• The global options are the same as command line but with cwd additionally
• Commands that have a colon are run as client.<command>.<subcommand>

Examples:

firebase target hosting --project foo
==>
client.target("hosting", { project: foo})

firebase deploy --only hosting  --token $FIREBASE_TOKEN
==>
client.deploy({ only: 'hosting', token: process.env.FIREBASE_TOKEN })

firebase target:apply mytype mytarget
==>
client.target.apply('mytype', 'mytarget')     // No options added!

Also, I don't think you need to add a token option in node code if you have have a process.env.FIREBASE_TOKEN, it loads automatically. HTH

Read more in this file and commands directory:
https://github.com/firebase/firebase-tools/blob/master/src/commands/index.js

[samtstern]

@jesperp thanks for your clear and concise explanation! Even as someone who "knows" the answer to this, I will refer to your answer when I forget until we get the docs up.

[danielpox]

I'm struggling to get anything working here too.
@SJAnderson Can you post some of your examples here? Particularly the config get (and set if you have it) 🙏

I’m having errors with config:set. Can’t seem to figure out their expected syntax for environment variables.

I would expect firebase functions:config:set my_var="foo bar" to be written as something like firebase.functions.config.set('my_var="foo bar"'). But it fails to parse it, saying I didn’t provide a key=value pair, which I obviously did.

After debugging I found it loops though the argument string, letter by letter instead of as an array. So it takes the “m” of “my_var” and complains. I’ve tried passing an array instead like so: firebase.functions.config.set(['my_var="foo bar"']), but then it complains that I must provide at least one key=value pair, since it expects strings as arguments.

[samtstern]

@danielpox hmmm I have some scripts which use the syntax you mentioned with no problems, for example:
https://github.com/firebase/oss-bot/blob/master/functions/src/scripts/deploy-config.ts#L86

So I do:

const firebase = require('firebase-tools');

firebase.functions.config.set(["foo.bar=abc", "foo.baz=xyz"], { project: 'my-project-id})

And it all works. If you're still having this issue could you please put together a simple reproduction and open a new issue on this repo?

[danielpox]

@samtstern I see. I tried running the CLI instead, and it turns out

1. I had the wrong key syntax, since it’s necessary to include a dot like so: my_namespace.my_var="foo bar", and
2. I didn’t include the project id as an option either.

I found an option to run the CLI directly instead of as a module, as part of an npm script, but good to understand how the module syntax works. Thank you!