Firebase Storage clone uploaded file and create new file without downloading/uploading possible?

Question

let's say I have an image /path/image1.png in the firebase storage. I want to copy this image and create a new image with a different name but the same content as /path/image2.png. I'm using AngularFire. How will I achieve this? Please help

Answer 1

Firebase Storage (nowadays called Cloud Storage for Firebase) is a set of client-side SDKs that allow you to access Cloud Storage from within your application.

There is no Firebase API to create a copy of a file in Cloud Storage. It's a valid use-case though, so I'd recommend you file a feature request for it.

In the meantime, the two options I can think of are:

1. Read the data to the client, and write it to the new location. This is definitely wasting bandwidth for the client, so I'd only consider it if your files are quite small, and your clients have a decent connection.

2. Use one of the (non-Firebase) server-side SDKs for Cloud Storage to create a copy of the file. For example, you could wrap this Node.js code in a callable Cloud Function and then call that from your application code.

   await storage
     .bucket(srcBucketName)
     .file(srcFilename)
     .copy(storage.bucket(destBucketName).file(destFilename));