Uploading Files to Google Cloud Storage with NodeJS

Introduction

This guide will show you how to upload files to Google Cloud Storage using NodeJS. This method, which separates file storage from logic processing, is commonly used today. Cloud Storage offers an efficient solution for securely storing data, with major providers like Google, Amazon, and Azure leading the way.

Prerequisites

Before you proceed, make sure you have:

A Google Cloud account or a Service Account with the necessary permissions to interact with a Bucket.
Installed the Google Cloud CLI.
Basic knowledge of NodeJS. You can refer to this guide to set up a NodeJS TypeScript project as used in this article.

Creating a Service Account

Refer to this guide to create a JSON file for your Service Account before moving on to the next steps.

Setting roles for necessary permissions

Ensure you have assigned the roles needed to interact with Google Bucket.

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding {project id} \
    --member=serviceAccount:{service account username}@{project id}.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role=roles/{role}

Execute the following roles one by one: `roles/storage.objectAdmin`, `roles/storage.admin`

Working with NodeJS

After successfully setting up your NodeJS TypeScript project, install the following package to interact with Google Cloud Storage:

yarn add @google-cloud/storage

Next is the code to create a Bucket and upload a file to the Bucket.

import {Bucket, Storage} from '@google-cloud/storage'

const getBucket = async (bucketName: string): Promise<Bucket> => {
  try {
    const bucket = storage.bucket(bucketName)
    await bucket.getMetadata()
    return bucket
  } catch {
    await storage.createBucket(bucketName, {location: 'asia-southeast1'}) // replace your location
    return storage.bucket(bucketName)
  }
}

const storage = new Storage({
  keyFilename: 'local-path/service-account.json',
})
const bucketName = '{project id}-{bucket name}'
const fileName = 'text.txt' // replace your file
const filePath = 'local-path/' + fileName;
const storagePath = `storage_folder_name/${fileName}`

const bucket = await getBucket(bucketName)
const [buckets] = await storage.getBuckets()
const bucketNames = buckets.map(item => item.name)
console.log('Bucket names:', bucketNames)

const result = await bucket.upload(filePath, {
  destination: storagePath,
  predefinedAcl: 'publicRead',
  metadata: {
    contentType: 'application/plain',
  },
})
console.log('Link download:', result?.[0]?.metadata?.mediaLink)

I've checked whether the bucket exists with the above code block. If it doesn't exist, the code will create it. If it does exist, it will upload the file to that bucket and list all bucket names.
Make sure you successfully create the `service-account.json` file and have the necessary permissions to interact with the bucket.
The bucket name must follow the format `{project id}-{bucket name}` and must be unique (it can't duplicate an existing bucket name).
After executing the program, it will show the download link for the successfully uploaded file, which will look like this: `https://storage.googleapis.com/{bucket name}/{folders}/{file name}`