Setting default environment variables in Heroku - javascript

I'm working on an app that connects to third-party APIs which require the use of an APP ID and SECRET KEY.
I am storing these values as environment variables in heroku, so that I don't need to expose them in my code.
If I deploy to heroku, it will use heroku's environment variables to resolve these API credentials.
If I'm working on it locally, I want to use my config.js module, and lookup the API credentials there. NOTE: This config.js file is included in my .gitignore so that these credentials never end up in the cloud.
The problematic code is this:
var api_secret = process.env.API_SECRET || require('../../config.js').secret;
When I run this locally, I've got no issues. Meaning, it is unable to resolve the environment variable, so instead it uses the secret from within config.js.
When I run it on heroku, it DOES throw an error telling me that module 'config.js' could not be found. This makes sense, because it was never pushed up with the rest of the repo, by virtue that it is in my .gitignore.
Because heroku is parsing through my code before it ever runs, the require('../../config.js') is problematic. It is trying to lookup a file that doesn't exist.
How can I solve the issue of using environment variables when deployed, and the config.js module when running locally?

On the Heroku dashboard for your application, you can set config variables. If you have the Heroku Toolbelt set up on your machine, you can also use:
heroku config:set API_SECRET=secret
See this article for more.
Edit: Think I may have misunderstood the question. I would suggest, if possible, using the dotenv npm package to set your config variables locally.
If not, another thing to check would be that the config.js package is in your package.json file, because Heroku will use this to build your dependencies.

If you do not want to push your config.js to heroky at all, you can just follow the following to determine whether the config file exists or not with a try catch and the file system module:
Check synchronously if file/directory exists in Node.js
In your case:
var fs = require('fs'),
api_secret,
config;
try {
// Check whether config.js exists
config = fs.lstatSync('../../config.js');
// If we reach this line then config.js exists, yay!
api_secret = process.env.API_SECRET || require('../../config.js').secret;
// or alternatively api_secret = require('../../config.js').secret;
// depending on your logic
}
catch (e) {
// else config.js does not exist
api_secret = process.env.API_SECRET
}
To run Heroku commands programmatically, you can set up a free Ruby app and make it do what you want through API calls. Use Heroku-api. See https://github.com/heroku/heroku.rb
If you want to set Heroku commands manually, you can set env variables on Heroku either with the command heroku config:set MYVAR=MYVALUE or through the Heroku dashboard (Click on your app > settings > reveal config vars > edit).

Related

How put API key on env files in a Node.js app?

this is my first time im trying to handle " Web api ", so i took this project to get many call but after it running well, when i try to click to "search" it dosent work,
I guess the problem arises from api call because chrome inspector show me that :
I was able to understand on the different forums, for handling apis call with Node.js that must be encapsulated API calls behind "Environment variable".
That the config.js file
When i try to put on the terminal export env.API_KEY='000000000000000' it made me :
export: not valid in this context: env.API_KEY
I hope you can point me in the right direction, I very tried everything, to run it that.
I personally like to use a npm package called dotenv:
You can install it by running npm i dotenv within your api directory.
Have a file called .env within your api directory which contains all of your environment variables:
APP_ID="000000000000000"
API_KEY="000000000000000"
Then change config.js to load all environment variable files when it is executed by including require('dotenv').config():
require('dotenv').config()
module.exports = {
APP_ID: process.env.APP_ID,
API_KEY: process.env.API_KEY,
BASE_URL: 'https://api.adzuna.com/v1/api/jobs',
BASE_PARAMS: 'search/1?&results_per_page=20&content-type=application/json',
};
Note: you will also want to add .env to your .gitingore so that your sensitive API keys aren't included in your git repository

What's the proper way of setting environment variable in Netlify functions?

What's the proper way of setting environment variables in netlify? I would like to be able to set different values for the variables depending on the environment.
Pseudo code:
let host;
if (process.env.GATSBY_CUSTOM_CONTEXT === 'production') {
host = process.env.PRODUCTION_HOST
} else if (process.env.GATSBY_CUSTOM_CONTEXT === 'development') {
host = process.env.DEVELOPMENT_HOST
}
I have tried passing env variable thru CLI, like GATSBY_CUSTOM_CONTEXT=production gatsby build and I also tried using same command with cross-env.
My other attempt used netlify.toml:
[build]
base = "/"
publish = "public"
command = "yarn build"
functions = "src/functions"
[context.production]
[context.production.environment]
GATSBY_CUSTOM_CONTEXT = "production"
All of these options worked with netlify dev locally, but in production GATSBY_CUSTOM_CONTEXT is always undefined.
The reason you can't resolve the environment variables in your Netlify functions is because as of the time of your question, Netlify does not transfer the environment variables from the netlify.toml file.
You must put them into the admin panel in your site settings in the app.netlify.com dashboard.
Unfortunately, what you're looking to doesn't seem to be currently supported. Though they provide an alternative approach.
I found this snippet on their docs:
CALLING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Using environment variables directly as
values ($VARIABLENAME) in your netlify.toml file is not supported.
However, the following workflow can be used to substitute values in
the file with environment variable values, assuming you are only
trying to change headers or redirects. The rest of the file is read
BEFORE your build — but those sections are read AFTER the build
process.
Add a placeholder like HEADER_PLACEHOLDER somewhere in the netlify.toml redirects or headers sections.
Create an environment variable, for example PROD_API_LOCATION, with the desired value. You can create environment variables in the
toml file or in our UI. You might use the latter to keep sensitive
values out of your repository.
Prepend a replacement command to your build command. Here’s an example for a site using yarn build to build: sed -i
s/HEADER_PLACEHOLDER/${PROD_API_LOCATION}/g netlify.toml && yarn build
Taken from here: https://www.netlify.com/docs/netlify-toml-reference/

Conditional javascript source code

Background:
I have 3 different URLs, one per environment (dev, test, prod), and I don't want to expose all the URLs in the client (source code).
How can I expose in the client code, just the one corresponding to the environment in context?
Note: As I understand, I need to do something in the build process using environment variables (I'm using node.js). However, I don't want to touch anything related with webpack, as what I'm trying to do is a standalone package that can be imported in any application regardless of the framework they are using. Webpack plugins/configuration are not an option, but I can use any npm package if required.
During your build process, you can check the environment variable and then copy over a config file. For example, you could keep your URIs in /config/<env>.js, and then copy/rename it to /settings.js during the build. Your URL could be exported from that.
The following npm package fits my requirements completely https://www.npmjs.com/package/config , you can load conditional files based on the node environment variable NODE_ENV, so when NODE_ENV=development, the file /config/development.js is used to create the build. you can use different extensions for the config files, also you can customize the config folder path by changing the environment variable $NODE_CONFIG_DIR heres an example:
const config = require('config');
process.env.$NODE_CONFIG_DIR = './' // relative path ./config
const url = config.get('url');
//if NODE_ENV is development will load the file config/development.js
console.log(url);

app.get('env') usage in localhost and production

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var db_url;
if(app.get('env') == "development"){
db_url = 'mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/localhost';
}else{
db_url = 'something else';
}
console.log(app.get('env'));
What does app.get('env') in express means? I'm seeing it still print development when I deploy my code to live server.
You need to tell it you're in production mode; see part of the Express docs.
In development, you typically set environment variables in your interactive shell, for example by using export or your .bash_profile file. But in general you shouldn’t do that on a production server; instead, use your OS’s init system (systemd or Upstart). The next section provides more details about using your init system in general, but setting NODE_ENV is so important for performance (and easy to do), that it’s highlighted here.
With Upstart, use the env keyword in your job file. For example:
# /etc/init/env.conf
env NODE_ENV=production
For more information, see the Upstart Intro, Cookbook and Best Practices.
With systemd, use the Environment directive in your unit file. For example:
# /etc/systemd/system/myservice.service
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
For more information, see Using Environment Variables In systemd Units.
If you are using StrongLoop Process Manager, you can also set the environment variable when you install StrongLoop PM as a service.
You can also set process.env.NODE_ENV in a JavaScript file if necessary.

Sails.js, application file not generated

I'm new to Sails.js and are now working through some tutorials.
I have now created my Sails application and added a User model and controller. The application runs when executing sails lift. I am able the view the users and create more.
I cannot find the below referenced file that is supposed to contain basic application settings such as application name, port, environment and log level.
config/application.js
Am I missing something or did I create the application wrong?
port and loglevel should be set in config/env/[production|development]
I think the name of the application is taken from the package.json if I'm not mistaken.
Sails have improved this setup. Now you should have an env folder under config with an environment config file. For example development.js
module.exports = {
port: 1337
};
This will set the port for that environment. This environment is either set as the environment variable 'NODE_ENV' or you can specify this in your local.js file. Like so.
environment: development'
Note any variables set here can be accessed by using
sails.config.variable
So you can set up your own appname variable and access it like that.

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