FirebaseStorage: Deleting a folder and all its contents using node.js

Question

I want to delete a Firebase Storage folder and all its contents using node.js / Firebase Admin SDK but I'm not able to.

A similar question was asked in the google group below about a year ago and I'm wondering if there is a solution now:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/firebase-talk/aG7GSR7kVtw

I am able to delete a single file using node.js example below:

https://mzmuse.com/blog/how-to-upload-to-firebase-storage-in-node

But I'm not able to delete a folder and all it's contents.

Any ideas? Am I missing something?

Here's the code I'm using

const keyFilename="path/to/my/private.json";
const projectId = "myprojectid";
const bucketName = `${projectId}.appspot.com`;

const gcs = require('@google-cloud/storage')({
    projectId,
    keyFilename
});
const bucket = gcs.bucket(bucketName);

THIS WORKS FINE - Deleting a single file

const deleteFile = 'users/user1/folder1/IMG_1.JPG'
const gcFile = bucket.file(deleteFile);
gcFile.delete((err,res)=>console.log(err||res));

THIS DOES NOT WORK - Deleting the folder and contents

const deleteFolder = 'users/user1/'
const gcFolder = bucket.file(deleteFolder);
gcFolder.delete((err,res)=>console.log(err||res));

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THIS IS NOT A DUPE AS MARKED BY SOME MEMBERS

My question is specific to node.js and the answer given is for Java.

UPDATE

I found this a page in google cloud site where they show a way to delete all files under a directory (folder)

https://googlecloudplatform.github.io/google-cloud-node/#/docs/google-cloud/0.56.0/storage/bucket?method=deleteFiles

bucket.deleteFiles({
  prefix: 'images/'
}, function(err) {
  if (!err) {
    // All files in the `images` directory have been deleted.
  }
});

But I'm still not able to delete the folder itself

You can't do this programmatically. Read the answer on the dup to understand why there are not actually any "folders" in a Cloud Storage bucket. Currently, the only way to delete all the files under a location is with the gsutil command line. — Doug Stevenson, Jul 16 '17 at 20:44
While these are Swift questions, the answers are applicable and contain really good information that answers the question: [This One](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38214052/delete-folder-with-contents-from-firebase-storage) and [Another One](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37749647/firebasestorage-how-to-delete-directory) and [This Google Group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/firebase-talk/aG7GSR7kVtw) — Jay, Jul 20 '17 at 18:31
As of Jul 2019, you can list a folder, and delete its contents recursively, see my answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37749647/firebasestorage-how-to-delete-directory/56844189#56844189 — Miki, Jul 02 '19 at 17:28

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 16 '17 at 21:27

From this post:

You can delete only the whole bucket, but you cannot delete a folder in a bucket.

Use GcsService to delete files or folders.

String bucketName = "bucketname.appspot.com";

GcsService gcsService = GcsServiceFactory.createGcsService(RetryParams.getDefaultInstance());
gcsService.delete(new GcsFilename(bucketName, "test"));

FirebaseStorage: Deleting a folder and all its contents using node.js

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1 Answers1