Firebase-tools: Firestore data in emulator not showing up in emulator UI

[metachris]

[REQUIRED] Environment info

firebase-tools:

$ firebase --version
8.4.2

$ node -v
v10.16.3

Platform: macOS

[REQUIRED] Test case

index.js

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

process.env.FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST = 'localhost:8080';

admin.initializeApp();

let db = admin.firestore();

async function test() {
    let docRef = db.collection('users').doc('alovelace2');

    let setAda = docRef.set({
        first: 'Ada',
        last: 'Lovelace',
        born: 1815
    });
}

test()

package.json

{
    "name": "firebase-emulator-ui-test",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "main": "index.js",
    "author": "Chris Hager <[email protected]>",
    "license": "MIT",
    "dependencies": {
    "firebase-admin": "^8.12.1"
    }
}

I simply created a new directory, initialise firebase with firebase init and the node project with yarn init, and added firebase-admin (yarn add firebase-admin).

[REQUIRED] Steps to reproduce

• Run the code above. Adding multiple entries to the firestore works, and I can retrieve them in code.

[REQUIRED] Expected behavior

Firebase UI at http://localhost:4000/firestore should show the data.

[REQUIRED] Actual behavior

Firebase UI at http://localhost:4000/firestore shows only an empty root.

[metachris]

Found the answer -- when calling admin.initializeApp() you need to set the correct projectId, then the data will show up.

[gordonjl]

To add to this, I got the same issue when creating different project environments via firebase use [your environment name]. The local emulator was working, just not showing any data. Once I switched my config settings to the correct environment, all was well and data started showing up in the emulator.

[basickarl]

Found the answer -- when calling admin.initializeApp() you need to set the correct projectId, then the data will show up.

Embarrassing that this isn't in the documentation more clearly.

[samtstern]

@basickarl calling something embarrassing isn't very constructive, also this IS in the documentation:

Link:
https://firebase.google.com/docs/emulator-suite/connect_firestore#admin_sdks

Screenshot:

[basickarl]

@samtstern Well that is absolutely delightful for a person who knows _where to find it_. Google documentation together with Microsoft has always been a wall-of-text mess.

[darlenew]

My script does set the projectId, and I still have this issue. I am running firebase 8.16.2.

My scripts are reading from and writing to the emulator fine, but if I go into the Emulator UI, there is no data shown. I can only view the collections, documents, subcollections, etc. if I manually create the top-level collection and documents. If I use the Cloud Firestore without the emulator, the same scripts work fine and I can view all the data in the UI without any manual intervention. Please advise.