Dotenv is a zero-dependency module that loads environment variables from a .env file into process.env.
.env.- Create a .env file and add your configurations.
//.env
BASE_URL=https://umuzi.org API_KEY=000FBAA4558FF565851A3E104017AB1A SERVER_PORT=3000 USER=umuziadmin OBJ={key1:“value1”, key2:“value2”,key3:“value3”,key4:“value4”} BOOL=true NUM=123456 STRING= Dumela Lefatshe ARRAY=[1,2,3,4,5,6]
#### Usage
- You can access your configuration from your code like this.
//index.js
require(‘dotenv’).config();
const url = process.env.BASE_URL; const apiKey = process.env.API_KEY; const port = process.env.SERVER_PORT; const user = process.env.USER; const obj = process.env.OBJ; const boolean = process.env.BOOL; const number = process.env.NUM; const string = process.env.STRING; const null1 = process.env.NULL; //be careful with reserved words const undefined1 = process.env.UNDEFINED; const array = process.env.ARRAY;
console.log(url); console.log(apiKey); console.log(port); console.log(user); //lol, this one seems to return the name of pc owners. console.log(obj); console.log(number); console.log(string); console.log(boolean); console.log(null1 == null ? true : false); console.log(array);
What if you need this environment variables in multiple places? If you do reference the variables everywhere that you need them it could make refactoring and maintenance more difficult than if they are in one place.
#### You can use a Javascript config file to get around this.
//config.js
require(‘dotenv’).config();
module.exports = { url : process.env.BASE_URL, apiKey : process.env.API_KEY, port : process.env.SERVER_PORT, user : process.env.USER, obj : process.env.OBJ, boolean : process.env.BOOL, number : process.env.NUM, string : process.env.STRING, null1 : process.env.NULL, undefined1 : process.env.UNDEFINED, array : process.env.ARRAY };
Now you can import this configs from any place in your code.
//index.js, doSomething.js, anotherJsFile.js, etc
const configs = require(‘/path/to/js/config/file’);
console.log(configs.url); console.log(configs.apiKey); console.log(configs.user); console.log(configs.obj);
##### What’s the value in this technique?
- it is easy
- clarity on how all environment variables are being mapped
- you can rename variables to more readable properties
- you can add other configuration properties from non-environment variables
## OR
Dotenv has the option of preloading the environment variables outside your code. Preload your variables and eliminate the code that reads the .env file from your code base. Less code is fewer lines that could break or be maintained.
This technique removes any need for code that uses require on dotenv. This includes the ``` dotenv.config()``` or ``` require('dotenv').config() ``` code mentioned previously in this article. You can run your node app using the — require ( -r ) command line option to preload dotenv. The following command will preload all environment variables from the file .env using dotenv and make them available in your app.
node -r dotenv/config server.js
Now you can access all environment variables in the .env without requiring dotenv in your code, use ```process.env.NAME_OF_VARAIBLE``` to access the variables.
## Best practices
> Be careful to add .env to your .gitignore file and commit that change before you add your .env. Otherwise, you run the risk of committing an early version of your .env to source control. Your .env file contains very sensitive information (your app key at the very least). You do not want this in version control where everybody can see this information and possibly use it to attack your site.
Think about database information which might be stored in there or email keys or passwords. Furthermore it is likely that the information which you use in your .env file also needs to change between environments so you will need to change values anyways.
//.gitignore
.env
#### Sharing your .env file
The best practice on this matter is add a ```.env-example``` file in your repo to give a general outline of configuration available to developers but using dummy data as values to your variables.
//.env-example
BASE_URL=https://dummy.url.com API_KEY=dummyApiKeyHere SERVER_PORT=dummyPort USER=dummyAdminName OBJ={dummyKey1:“dummyvalue1”, dummyKey2:“dummyValue2”,dummyKey3:“dummyValue3”,dummyKey4:“dummyValue4”} BOOL=true NUM=123456 STRING=DummyString ARRAY=[“dummy”,“dummy”,“dummy”,“dummy”,“dummy”]
**Do not include this file in.gitignore```**
https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv
https://medium.com/chingu/an-introduction-to-environment-variables-and-how-to-use-them-f602f66d15fa
https://medium.com/chingu/protect-application-assets-how-to-secure-your-secrets-a4165550c5fb