CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsexpressenvironment-variables
rgk
rgk

Reputation: 810

how to configure express js application according to environment? like development, staging and production?

I am new to expressjs app development, now need to configure application as per environment. came across 'node-env-file' , 'cross-env'. but hardly understood anything. Pls suggest how to set env variables as per environment or some good documentation suggestions pls? Based on environment, I would like to load my configuraiton file.As of now, I have two config files, one for dev and one for production.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1846

Answers (2)

Sridhar
Sridhar

Reputation: 11786

The idea is to set NODE_ENV as the environmental variable to determine whether the given environment is production or staging or development. The code base will run based on this set variable.

The variable needs to set in .bash_profile

$ echo export NODE_ENV=production >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source ~/.bash_profile

For more, check Running Express.js in Production Mode

I follow Ghost.org (a Node.js production) app's model.

Once that is done, you can have the environmental details in respective json files like config.production.json, config.development.json

Next, you need to load one of these file based on the environment.

var  env = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development';
var Nconf = require('nconf'),
nconf = new Nconf.Provider(),
nconf.file('ghost3', __dirname + '/env/config.' + env + '.json');

For more on how Ghost does this, check config/index.js

Upvotes: 1

Lucas Katayama
Lucas Katayama

Reputation: 4570

I use a .env file with env vars:

VAR=VALUE

And read that with source command before running express

$ source .env
$ node app.js

Then, to access inside express, you can use:

var temp = process.env.VAR; //contains VALUE

You can use dotenv module, to automatically load .env file

Upvotes: 0

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