Can't create user with `phoneNumber: null`

[gustavopch]

Describe your environment

• Operating System version: macOS Monterey 12.0.1
• Firebase SDK version: 9.10.0
• Firebase Product: auth
• Node.js version: 12.22.3
• NPM version: 6.14.13

Describe the problem

I receive the following error when creating a user with phoneNumber: null:

FirebaseAuthError: The phone number must be a non-empty E.164 standard compliant identifier string.

But the function params say it should be allowed:

firebase-admin-node/src/auth/auth-config.ts

Line 160 in aea280d

phoneNumber?: string | null;

Steps to reproduce:

Run the code below.

Relevant Code:

import firebase from 'firebase-admin'

await firebase.auth().createUser({
  displayName: 'John',
  email: 'john@example.com',
  phoneNumber: null,
})

[lahirumaramba]

Hey @bojeil-google, do you know if the BE accepts null here?

[hiranya911]

I don't think it makes any sense to "create" a user with a null phone number. It's same as creating one with no phone number specified. In case of update it specifically means to remove the phone number from the account.

[gustavopch]

@hiranya911 My understanding is that null means I want that field to be empty. If the user previously existed and had a phone number, I'm erasing it; if it didn't have a phone number or didn't exist, I'm being explicit that the field will be kept empty.

• Implicit: "Register a user with display name John and email john@example.com" (equivalent to omitting the property or passing undefined which is basically the same in JavaScript AFAIK)
• Explicit: "Register a user with display name John and email john@example.com, but leave the phone number empty" (equivalent to passing null)

IME, it's quite common to pass null when creating stuff in JavaScript. Anyway, if null won't be supported, the type declaration must be fixed because it currently allows that.

[bojeil-google]

+1 to @hiranya911, null is used for edit operations to delete a phone number. When creating a user with no phone number, you can choose not to pass any field or use undefined.

[hiranya911]

If the user previously existed and had a phone number, I'm erasing it; if it didn't have a phone number or didn't exist, I'm being explicit that the field will be kept empty.

If the user already exists, you can't create it again. createUser() will throw in this case. Given that phone number is not set on new user accounts unless explicitly requested, {phoneNumber: null} is redundant on a createUser() call.

[gustavopch]

@hiranya911 Oh sure, I was talking about how I use to view null Vs. undefined vs. omission in a more general perspective. I don't think allowing null on creation would "not make sense". I think it's just an opinion. At least, as I said, in my experience, it's quite common to be allowed to use null when creating stuff.

[gustavopch]

@hiranya911 For example, there's nothing wrong with:

await firebase
  .firestore()
  .collection('users')
  .add({
    displayName: 'John',
    email: 'john@example.com',
    phoneNumber: null,
  })

In fact, that's sometimes even necessary if you need to filter on phoneNumber — if the property is just omitted, it won't be indexed.

If null makes sense when adding a user to Firestore, intuitively, it also makes sense for Firebase Auth. I understand those are two different services with different implementations, but I'm talking from the perspective of someone who's looking from the outside, consuming them.

[lahirumaramba]

Closing due to inactivity.

[clintonb]

I just encountered this issue. I believe that either undefined or null should be allowed because it leads to simpler client development (e.g., always pass null if there is no phone number, regardless of whether the operation is a create or update). The CreateRequest type currently allows for both because it extends UpdateRequest which allows for both values. If you won't update the backend to be more client-friendly, can you at least fix the types?