React JS - Reading environment configurations from external property file - javascript

Problem :
I am new to React JS, and looking for an option to read environment configs from an external property file. This problem is more specific for one of my clients, who is looking to have an option to change the environment files dynamically. E.g. change the hostname/port dynamically whenever there is a change. The build process is not owned by my client. I create a minified final package, which my client deploys it on tomcat/web server.
Tried Solution :
With some read-outs, I have configured .env files for different environments and able to successfully read configs from these files. However, these are more of a build process environment files. And, I am trying to find a way to read the configs from an external source after my package is created.
Possible solutions : Here is one possible approach I can think of -
Read external property file using libraries like "properties-reader". I will provide the property file as part of my release bundle (i.e. build folder). My client can change this property file whenever required.
Please suggest if this is the correct approach or is there a better solution to this problem?

A Solution which worked for me !!
1) Create a "config.js" file inside public folder of react project. Sample Content of the
"config.js" file -
window.env = {
API_DOMAIN_ADDR: "http://localhost:8080"
};
2) Refer "config.js" file inside index.html. Code for index.html will be -
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script src="%PUBLIC_URL%/config.js"></script>
</body>
3) Now, content of the config.js file will be accessible to react code. Sample code to retrieve the value of config.js variables -
window.env.API_DOMAIN_ADDR
Add this code wherever variable value needs to be accessed. I added this in my service class which is making ajax call.

I would suggest using something like Firebase Realtime DB. I had a similar requirement for pointing the App builds to production or development server APIs for my company. For this, we use to load a Firebase Config and from there the UI used to pick up the host server endpoint.
Advantages:
This saves you from deploying your build folder every time.
This is realtime and less prone to errors.
FirebaseDB is free for small stuff like this.
The second option is to create two environment files which I see you have already done.

Related

How To Access Local File System With Chrome Extensions

I am trying to build a Chrome extension but I have encountered a problem. I need access to a file that is in the same directory as my JS script. Here is the representation:
 my_script.js
 My Folder
  |-> my_file.file
I use a third party library that does some required things with it. And I need to pass in the path to my_file.file The problem is my_script.js gets injected into the website I am trying to change and the code instead of searching on the local file system it tries to find it in www.website.com/My Folder/my_file.file which obviously does not exist. How can I make it so that it seacrhes relative to my_script.js? I unfortunately can't pass the file itself to func(), it has to be the path of the file. The file I am trying to reach is about 200MB which I was planning on shipping with my extension. Also this project is vanilla JS. Thank you!
my_script.js
...
lib.func('My Folder/my_file.file').then(function (out) {
document.out = out;
});
...

Using a javascript file to store an API key needed in an Xcode project

I recently made an iOS app I programmed with Swift public on github, and realized that my API key is in the project, and now visible to anyone. I used this link to solve my problem, and it says to create a config.js file that contains my API Keys in it, and then access those and store them in variables in the file that needs the key, but it seems that the example is for an HTML file, and I do not know how to do step 4 for my situation (the API key is needed in my app's AppDelegate.swift file). Eventually the config.js file will be placed in a .gitignore file.
If anyone has a better way for me to hide my API key from github without completely removing the AppDelegate.swift file from github, I am open to other suggestions.
I did what Chris G commented and created a JSON file, which I opened and parsed in my App Delegate. It worked.
FYI, don't forget to go to do Project > Build Phases > Copy Bundle Resources > +
in order to add the JSON file to your bundle so you can access it.

NodeJs temporary file creation, serve and deletion using tmp or something else

I am trying to make a compiler in which users make code at abc.com/newProject and their output is in an iframe, that iframe need to be served files that are made at the abc.com/newProject. So I will be doing a POST of JSON obj at abc.com/compile-project that will create files and those will be used by the iframe, after being used those should get deleted. Files are basically JS files that iframe will fetch using script in header.
So a pseudo-code will look something like this:-
app.post('/compile-project', function(req, res){
//Directory created using node tmp
//files created in the directory
//These files are accessible using <script src="/js/file1.js"></script>
//when the current connection requests the files they get deleted
});
Any help will be appreciated thanks.....
I am trying to make a compiler [...] Any help will be appreciated thanks.....
I would strongly discourage you from doing that if you don't know what you're doing (and considering the fact that you're asking how to save a file then apparently you don't).
The requirements that you described are extremely simple but you need to have much deeper understanding of everything that's going on to avoid serious security problems that you will encounter with no doubt along the way.
What you describes can be done without even using a file system, since all your files are served only once so it doesn't make much sense to store them in actual files. But even if you insist on the file system then all you need is to use fs.mkdtemp to create a temporary directory, use something like the uuid module for unique IDs to use in the filenames, then use fs.writeFile to write a file. This is all you need for the file upload endpoint. Now in the download endpoint all you need is to use fs.readFile to read the file and fs.unlink to remove it. That's it.
Now, it will surely get you into trouble of failures on browser reloads, back button not working, and finally security issues of people being able to serve any random code from your servers leading to vulnerabilities too numerous to even list here.
Take a look at the source code of repl.it and JS Bin on GitHub:
https://github.com/replit/repl.it
https://github.com/jsbin/jsbin
to appreciate the scope of the project that you are willing to undertake.

Change React Webpack application file and api path

I'm working on an app that is going to be deploy on-prem (no cloud) and there are requirement to deploy the application to different server path. For example in one company it might be company1.com and on another it might be company2.com/app because they already have a server and want to deploy it on the same server under a different context path.
The problem is in Webpack we compile the app and create HTML+JS+CSS files. The HTML and JS files have the server context path (part after the domain name) hardcoded into the code. For example loading the JS files will be done with <script src="/hello.js" /> so if the app will be deploy to company2.com/app I need the script tag to be <script src="/app/hello.js" />
I'm looking for way to change the server context path dynamically preferably using environment variable.
For compare we use Spring on the server side and there we can define env-var server.contextPath which will change the context path in which the app works.
If it changes anything the app is deployed as docker image.
Any ideas how to implement such thing?
That's an interesting question, and there are some ways you can resolve that. I'll list some options below.
I'm looking for way to change the server context path dynamically preferribly using environment variable.
I will list some other options, but the first one is using env vars.
Using Environment Variables When Building
webpack has a plugin (DefinePlugin) that allows us to set environment variables to the javascript code.
Then, you will be able to get those environment variables using process.env. For exemple, if you have the following configuration:
plugins: [
new webpack.DefinePlugin({
fruit: JSON.stringify('orange'),
MY_VAR: JSON.stringify('value'),
API_URL: JSON.stringify('http://some-api')
})
]
Then, in your code you can get them using:
console.log(process.env.fruit); // "orange"
console.log(process.env.MY_VAR); // "value"
console.log(process.env.API_URL); // "http://some-api"
This said, you can do something like this:
Passing environment-dependent variables in webpack
Then, for example, you can just use process.env.API_URL in your code, instead of using it hardcoded.
IMPORTANT: this method will only work if you have can build your code before releasing it to production. (I think it's not a problem for you).
I think this is the best option, because your code will be "clean", it is more "customizable" and it will "simply work", regardless your environment.
Using a Map
You can have some application logic to decide your variables. For example, you may "look" to the URL (i.e. location.href) and decide the values to use based on this address.
let api;
if (domain === 'domain1.com') api = 'api1';
if (domain === 'domain2.com') api = 'api2';
Using an Extra HTTP Server
You can always point to a hardcoded path in your server, lets say /api. Then, in your code, you will point to /api. So, all your requests will go to /api.
You will need to have an HTTP Server (it can be a Nginx, a NodeJS, whatever you want) listening to /api and then have this "routing" logic there.
It will work fine, but you will need to control the deployment of this HTTP server. This may not be a good option for you, but it may suit your needs.
One advantage is that you'll be able to only change the code of this HTTP server when changing some routes, without need to deploy your front-end code again.
I think that sums it.
Hope it helps!

HTML/Javascript: Enabling folder access from a subdirectory

I have a simple HTML file with some JavaScript that I would like to run locally (as opposed to deploying to a server). It is embedded inside a larger project whose file structure I would like to maintain. For example, the structure is something like this:
project level folder > src folder containing folders & files I would like to probe
> separate, non-project util folder > HTML & JS files I would like to run against src
I am aware that certain browsers do not allow this for security reasons (as pointed out here), but since I control all of the files - is there a way for the src folder/files to somehow indicate that they will allow the 'separate, non-project util folder' to access them? Maybe some kind of project-specific settings somewhere? I am aware that this can be done in server settings, but as I mentioned above I'd like to be able to run it locally without the need for a server.
The JavaScript that is attempting to access the src files uses RequireJS, in case that helps.
Here is what I ended up doing:
I wasn't able to provide full access exactly this way, but instead I setup a dummy HTML page in the project level folder that clicks itself to redirect to the HTML file located in the separate, non-project util folder. This allowed me to keep everything but that one, very small file separate but not have issues with file access.

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