Closing a firebase connection in Node.JS

Question

I'm trying to create a simple node.JS command-line script to interact with Firebase using their Javascript API. I want the tool to close the Firebase connection and terminate once it has finished it's interaction.

Here is some sample code showing what I am trying to achieve:

var Firebase = require('firebase');
var myRootRef = new Firebase('https://myprojectname.firebaseIO-demo.com/');
myRootRef.set('It's working!');

One possible solution would be adding a callback and calling process.exit():

var Firebase = require('firebase');
var myRootRef = new Firebase('https://myprojectname.firebaseIO-demo.com/');
myRootRef.set("It's working!", function() { 
    process.exit(0); 
});

However, I would love to have a more elegant solution than forcing the process to terminate with process.exit().

Any ideas?

There is currently no documented way to terminate a Firebase connection. — Anant, Sep 18 '13 at 18:17
Thanks, is there any undocumented way to do so? It's okay even if the code will break in the future... — urish, Sep 19 '13 at 10:08
@Anant When is Firebase going to fix this? It would be really nice not to have to use process.exit(0) to terminate a node process in which we have done firebase work. — cayblood, Jan 24 '15 at 22:49
this issue is ridiculous indeed; and even more ridiculous is fact that it has not been fixed during the last 3 years. — artur grzesiak, Jun 18 '16 at 19:40

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 29 '14 at 18:25

i'm not keen on forcing disconnect with process.exit(0) either.. as i only require data persistence (not real-time features) i use the REST API.. I find plain HTTPS twice as fast as the official firebase npm module..

var https = require("https"),
    someData = { some: "data" };

var req = https.request({ 
    hostname: "myprojectname.firebaseio.com", 
    method: "POST", 
    path: "/.json"
});
req.end(JSON.stringify(someData));

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

3

This can probably be solved with firebase.database().goOffline(). Got this from another thread: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37858899

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

1
1

answered Oct 15 '16 at 16:56

Doctor Khrall

49
3

This only works in the case of `const db = firebase.database(); db.goOffline();`. Any operation on the db itself causes the process to hang open. – Cody Django Jul 13 '18 at 01:15

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 11 '21 at 02:49

There are several steps required to properly stop the Firebase JS SDK, so that the Node.js process can terminate normally without forcibly interrupting it with process.exit():

You need to cancel any asynchronous listeners (like "on data change" events) that you set up
Call firebase.database().goOffline()
If you used firebase.auth() you need to call firebase.auth().signOut()
Finally, you also need to destroy the Firebase application by calling app.delete()

I've tested this with Node.js version 10 and Firebase JS SDK version 8.

Source: https://blog.famzah.net/2021/01/11/properly-stop-a-firebase-app-in-node-js/

Closing a firebase connection in Node.JS

3 Answers3

Linked