Accessing ENV var in different files in Node.js using dotenv

Question

I have a simple app I'm working on that uses the Google Maps API, and Darksky API; I've installed dotenv to handle hiding the keys for both. After following the Docs I was able to make this work but only in the file where dotenv in being required (app.js). I need access to the ENV variables in my footer.ejs file, and a weather.js file but process.env is not defined in them. Do I have to export dotenv? How do this? Thanks, in advance.

app.js

var express = require('express'),
Dotenv = require('dotenv').config(),
app = express(),
bodyParser = require('body-parser'),
mongoose = require('mongoose');

mongoose.connect(process.env.DB_URL);
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true}));
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/assets'));

// HomePage
app.get('/',function(req, res){
  res.render('home');
});

app.listen(process.env.PORT || process.env.LOC_PORT,function(err){
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  console.log('Server Running: '+ process.env.LOC_PORT);
});

Basim Hennawi · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-16 15:53:13Z

1

You can create env.js file, that export you environment variables as follow:

const dotenv = require('dotenv');

module.exports = {
  getEnvVariables: function () {
    const vars = dotenv.load();
    const jsonVars = {};
    for (const key in vars) jsonVars[key] = JSON.stringify(vars[key]);
    return jsonVars;
  },
};

Then just import {getEnvVariables} from './env'; after that.

In case you're using Webpack, you may add the following plugin to your weback configuration file so you dont't need to put the import line in any file across your app anyomore:

new webpack.DefinePlugin({
  'process.env': env.getEnvVariables()
}),

answered Nov 16, 2016 at 15:53

Basim Hennawi

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3 Comments

halfacreyum Over a year ago

Thanks, for the help. I'm getting an, 'Unexpected token import' error from weather.js, and a 'require is not defined' error from env.js.

Basim Hennawi Over a year ago

@halfacreyum Sorry, this is ES6 syntax, you can just use require as well and replace consts in my answer with vars.

halfacreyum Over a year ago

Sorry, I did switch const's to var's I should of mentioned that. I'm still getting the error from the env.js file ('require is not defined'), I'm loading the script for that file in the footer.

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