CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsgoogle-cloud-platformenvironment-variables
Ron I
Ron I

Reputation: 4250

Setting up environment variables in node, specifically, GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS

I have a node application and I'm trying to use the google language api. I want to set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the json file in the same directory (sibling to package.json and app.js).

I had tried process.env.GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = "./key.json"; in my app.js file (using express), but it isn't working. I have also tried putting "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS":"./key.json" in my package.json and that didn't work as well. It DOES work when I run in the terminal export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="./key".

Here is the error message:

ERROR: Error: Unexpected error while acquiring application default credentials: Could not load the default credentials. Browse to https://developers.google.com/accounts/docs/application-default-credentials for more information.

Any tips are appreciated, thanks!

Upvotes: 9

Views: 19289

Answers (7)

AnandShiva
AnandShiva

Reputation: 1349

If you are using npm package of google-auth-library, then this will be much easier.

To make things easier download the service account credentials json file to get same permission as some service account you are trying to access and store it in a safe place in your local.

Run the below code to access the secured endpoint or service using the google-auth-library.

const {GoogleAuth} = require('google-auth-library');

this.client = null;
this.GCP_SECURED_ENDPOINT = 'https:www.secured.gcp.com';
const getAuthClient = async () => {
  if (!this.client) {
    const auth = new GoogleAuth({
      projectId: '<ProjectID>',
      keyFile:
        '<Path to service account credentials json file >',
    });
    // const project = await auth.getProjectId();
    this.client = await auth.getIdTokenClient(this.GCP_SECURED_ENDPOINT);
  }
  return this.client;
};

const publish = async crawlTask => {
  const client = await getAuthClient();
  const {data} = await client.request({
    url: `${this.GCP_SECURED_ENDPOINT}`,
    method: 'POST',
    data: crawlTask,
  });
  return data;
};
const requestData = {};
publish(requestData);

Upvotes: 0

Emil Wallgren
Emil Wallgren

Reputation: 23

Just to update this thread. Relative paths with GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS now works fine with dotenv :)

Just store your service-account credentials as a file in your project and reference it relative to your env-file as a path. Then it should work fine :)

Upvotes: 1

m0rg4n
m0rg4n

Reputation: 328

After reading and reading about this issue on the internet, the only way to resolve this issue for me was to declare the environment variable for the node execution:

GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="./key.json" node index.js

Because I was able to print the token from my server console, but when I was running the node application, the library was unable to retrieve the system environment value, but setting the variable for the execution, it was able to retrieve the value.

Upvotes: 10

Michael Nelles
Michael Nelles

Reputation: 6032

The issue is covered mostly in the docs here.

the command varies slightly depending on what your OS is: enter image description here enter image description here

Upvotes: 0

rsantiago
rsantiago

Reputation: 2099

It could be that the environment variable in your OS was not accurately set. For example in Linux you usually have to set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS in the terminal where you executed your app.

 export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH]"

Another option you have is passing the json path by code. It is documented this process using Node.js with the Cloud Storage.

Upvotes: 1

hanstar17
hanstar17

Reputation: 90

I encountered the same issue. I was able to get it working by doing the following:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="//Users/username/projects/projectname/the.json"

Upvotes: 0

Ryan M
Ryan M

Reputation: 342

The GOOGLE_APPLICATION_DEFAULT environment variable you are setting is accessed by the google client libraries - it wont work with a relative path, you'll need to set the absolute path.

Upvotes: 0

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