Add support for Auth emulator via useEmulator

[c5n8]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
UI still connect to project server when using auth emulator.

Describe the solution you'd like
A way to connect UI to auth emulator.

Describe alternatives you've considered
I have modified default auth instance to use emulator, but still failed to make UI use emulator.

Additional context
Related Documentation

[akauppi]

This should have been obvious. Could Firebase teams please have a post-mortem about why such information leaks through, and releases are not in sync?

Then again, none of the Changelogs likely state that we should expect firebaseui to be compatible with the auth emulation, do they?

[sam-gc]

Hi @c5n8 thanks for raising this! We are aware of the issue and we are investigating (b/165671830).

[sam-gc]

@akauppi -- We released the Auth Emulator BETA just last week. We're really excited about the emulator and we wanted to get it into the hands of customers as quickly as we could, knowing how valuable it can be to a safe development workflow!🙂 We're currently working on ensuring that the Auth emulator works with FirebaseUI; it has a slightly different release schedule, and releases aren't always aligned with other Firebase SDKs.

[bojeil-google]

FirebaseUI cannot currently readily support the Auth emulator as it creates an internal Auth instance which does not propagate the emulator settings. Additional work is needed to support this. Filed it as a feature request.

[akauppi]

@samhorlbeck just a slight nod. I meant no harm. Somehow the mention that Auth Emulator was only beta has escaped me.

[sam-gc]

@akauppi no worries, that's how I spell "BETA," not meant as emphasis :)

[jmcdl]

It's not explicit in the original comment, but am I correct in thinking that @c5n8 is referring to the fact that the useEmulator() method suggested in the linked docs (copied below) appears to be undefined?

firebase.auth().useEmulator('http://localhost:9099/');

At least when I try to use it in my React app I get a 'useEmulator is not a function' error from webpack and my IDE (WebStorm).

I would note that the same method is suggested for the firestore emulator and is also wrong.

The code given in the docs is:

// Initialize your Web app as described in the Get started for Web
// Firebase previously initialized using firebase.initializeApp().
var db = firebase.firestore();
if (location.hostname === "localhost") {
  db.useEmulator("localhost", 8080);
}

What actually works is:

var db = firebase.firestore();
if (location.hostname === "localhost") {
  db.settings({
  host: "localhost:5002",
  ssl: false,
});
}

[sam-gc]

@jmcdl this is a different issue: Firebase UI for Auth does not currently honor the call to firebase.auth().useEmulator() though the function is defined properly on firebase.auth(). It sounds like you may be using an older version of the SDK that does not have the useEmulator() function (it was added quite recently, as in the last month or two, at least for Auth).

If you're still having the issue, please file a bug in the firebase-js-sdk repo.

[jmcdl]

@samhorlbeck thank you, you were correct that I wasn't using the latest version of the firebase sdk. Updating the SDK has resolved the error.