Chapter 20 - How to fetch and delete an image from Firebase Storage using Laravel PHP project

In this chapter, we will learn how to fetch an image and delete an image from the Firebase Storage using the Laravel PHP project with the kreait/laravel-firebase package.

First of all we assume that you have read our previous chapter on how to upload an image to the Firebase Storage from the Laravel PHP project using the kreait/laravel-firebase package. Chapter 19

In below example, we have "Students" folder in the root of the bucket. And inside the folder, we have a png image with document id of the student.

So you have the path now "Students/defT5uT7SDu9K5RFtIdl.png" Now we will fetch the images from the path. And this can be achieved by following code

 $expiresAt = new \DateTime('today');  
 $imageReference = app('firebase.storage')->getBucket()->object("Students/defT5uT7SDu9K5RFtIdl.png");  
 if($imageReference->exists())  
   $image = $imageReference->signedUrl($expiresAt);  

This $image would give you url of the image

 https://storage.googleapis.com/test-cc4d3.appspot.com/Students/defT5uT7SDu9K5RFtIdl.png?GoogleAccessId=XXXXXX&Expires=1596312000&Signature=XXXXXXX  

Hope you are clear and easy how can you fetch an image stored in firebase storage bucket.

Now lets see how can we delete this image

Consider the same image path "Students/defT5uT7SDu9K5RFtIdl.png", the delete code for this image will be as below

 $imageDeleted = app('firebase.storage')->getBucket()->object("Students/defT5uT7SDu9K5RFtIdl.png")->delete();  

This is very easy step to delete an image. Now how you can detect an image is already deleted and you don't make an call to fetch image that is already deleted. So best practice would be to store the image path in the same document. This way you can change path of any image for a document at any time. So consider below example

You create a new image field and store path in that field as string. So whenever you store a image you will update this field

 $Student->update([  
           ['path' => 'image', 'value' => $imagepath])]  
         ]);  

And on delete, simply make this field null

 $Student->update([  
           ['path' => 'image', 'value' => null])]  
         ]);  

So before fetching the image, just check this image is not null.

Hope, all stuff regarding image in Firebase Storage with Laravel PHP is clear. Other than this if you have any questions or doubts, please let us know in the comment section. And also know if you want a specific chapter on any topic, we would love to do that. So stayed tuned with us for more upcoming chapters on "Laravel with Firebase". And please keep supporting us by sharing this blog with all techie friends. Thanks for reading.