delete-unused-accounts-cron

Periodically delete unused accounts

This sample demonstrates how to delete the accounts of users who have not signed-in in the last month.

Functions Code

See the file functions/index.js for the code.

Cloud Functions does not natively supports cron jobs. We are working around this by executing the code as an HTTPS-triggered function. Then simply use an external service to periodically "ping" the URL.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of external services for cron jobs:

• https://cloud.google.com/scheduler/
• https://cron-job.org/
• https://www.setcronjob.com/
• https://www.easycron.com/
• https://zapier.com/zapbook/webhook/

The dependencies are listed in functions/package.json.

Trigger rules

The function triggers when the HTTP URL of the Function is requested.

Deploy and test

Set the cron.key Google Cloud environment variables to a randomly generated key. This will be used to authorize requests coming from the 3rd-party cron service. For this use:

firebase functions:config:set cron.key="YOUR-KEY"

You can generate a random key, for instance, by running:

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(20).toString('hex'))"

To set up the sample:

• Create a Firebase Project using the Firebase Developer Console
• Download this sample e.g. git clone https://github.com/firebase/functions-samples
• Enter the sample directory cd functions-samples/delete-unused-accounts-cron
• Setup the sample with your project firebase use --add and follow the instructions.
• Install node dependencies of your Functions cd functions; npm install; cd -
• Deploy your project using firebase deploy.
• Open an account with a 3rd party cron service (e.g. www.setcronjob.com, cron-job.org, www.easycron.com, Zapier ...) and setup a daily cron job to hit the URL (don't forget to change <YOUR-KEY> and <PROJECT-ID>):

https://us-central1-<PROJECT-ID>.cloudfunctions.net/accountcleanup?key=<YOUR-KEY>