Cloud function to export Firestore backup data. Using firebase-admin or @google-cloud/firestore?

Question

I'm currently trying to build a cloud function to export my Firestore data to my Storage Bucket.

The only example I've found on the Firebase DOCs on how to do this:

https://googleapis.dev/nodejs/firestore/latest/v1.FirestoreAdminClient.html#exportDocuments

EXAMPLE

const firestore = require('@google-cloud/firestore');

const client = new firestore.v1.FirestoreAdminClient({
  // optional auth parameters.
});

const formattedName = client.databasePath('[PROJECT]', '[DATABASE]');
client.exportDocuments({name: formattedName})
  .then(responses => {
    const response = responses[0];
    // doThingsWith(response)
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error(err);
  });

From that example, it seems that I need to install @google-cloud/firestore as a dependency to my cloud function.

But I was wondering if I can access these methods using only the firebase-admin package.

I've thought of that because the firebase-admin has the @google-cloud/firestore as a dependency already.

> firebase-admin > package.json

"dependencies": {
    "@firebase/database": "^0.4.7",
    "@google-cloud/firestore": "^2.0.0",    // <---------------------
    "@google-cloud/storage": "^3.0.2",
    "@types/node": "^8.0.53",
    "dicer": "^0.3.0",
    "jsonwebtoken": "8.1.0",
    "node-forge": "0.7.4"
  },

QUESTION:

Is it possible to get an instance of the FirestoreAdminClient and use the exportDocuments method using just the firebase-admin ?

Or do I really need to install the @google-cloud/firestore as a direct dependency and work with it directly?

Answer 1

The way you're accessing the admin client is correct as far as I can tell.

const client = new admin.firestore.v1.FirestoreAdminClient({});

However, you probably won't get any TypeScript/intellisense help beyond this point since the Firestore library does not actually define detailed typings for v1 RPCs. Notice how they are declared with any types: https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-firestore/blob/425bf3d3f5ecab66fcecf5373e8dd03b73bb46ad/types/firestore.d.ts#L1354-L1364