Firebase Admin SDK (Node.js) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Firebase Admin SDK (Node.js) Basic Setup and User Management

📖 Scenario: You are building a backend service that manages users in a Firebase project. You will set up the Firebase Admin SDK in Node.js, configure it with service account credentials, create a new user, and then update that user's display name.

🎯 Goal: Set up Firebase Admin SDK in Node.js, initialize it with service account credentials, create a user with email and password, and update the user's display name.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable admin by requiring firebase-admin

Initialize Firebase Admin SDK with a service account object called serviceAccount

Create a new user with email [e-mail] and password securePass123

Update the created user's display name to John Doe

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Backend services often need to manage users securely. Firebase Admin SDK allows server-side user management like creating, updating, and deleting users.

💼 Career

Understanding Firebase Admin SDK is useful for backend developers working with Firebase projects, enabling secure user management and integration with other backend logic.

1

Setup Firebase Admin SDK import and service account

Create a constant called admin by requiring the firebase-admin module. Then create a constant called serviceAccount and assign it the object { projectId: 'my-firebase-project', clientEmail: '[e-mail]', privateKey: '-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nABC123\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n' }.

Firebase

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use require('firebase-admin') to import the SDK. The serviceAccount is a plain object with keys projectId, clientEmail, and privateKey.

2

Initialize Firebase Admin SDK

Initialize Firebase Admin SDK by calling admin.initializeApp with an object that has a credential property set to admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount).

Firebase

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

const serviceAccount = {
  projectId: 'my-firebase-project',
  clientEmail: '[e-mail]',
  privateKey: '-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nABC123\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n'
};

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use admin.initializeApp with credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount) to initialize the SDK.

3

Create a new user with email and password

Use admin.auth().createUser with an object containing email: '[e-mail]' and password: 'securePass123'. Assign the returned promise to a constant called userRecordPromise.

Firebase

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

const serviceAccount = {
  projectId: 'my-firebase-project',
  clientEmail: '[e-mail]',
  privateKey: '-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nABC123\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n'
};

admin.initializeApp({
  credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount)
});

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Call admin.auth().createUser with the email and password inside an object. Assign the result to userRecordPromise.

4

Update the user's display name

Use userRecordPromise.then to get the userRecord. Inside the then callback, call admin.auth().updateUser with userRecord.uid and an object setting displayName to 'John Doe'.

Firebase

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

const serviceAccount = {
  projectId: 'my-firebase-project',
  clientEmail: '[e-mail]',
  privateKey: '-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nABC123\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n'
};

admin.initializeApp({
  credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount)
});

const userRecordPromise = admin.auth().createUser({
  email: '[e-mail]',
  password: 'securePass123'
});

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use userRecordPromise.then to get the user record, then call admin.auth().updateUser with the user's UID and the new display name.