HTML .gitignore - node.js

Question

I currently have my api keys and list id sitting in my app.js file. I am trying to add those API keys to another file and hide the file using .gitignore. But how do I do that and even if I hide the file in the new secret file how do I get those keys back in my original app.js file

Answer 1

What you should do is use an Environment File.
Environment files start with .env and allow you to save things that are specific to your working environment (such as sensitive keys).
If you are using nodejs, you can easily import the data from a .env file using require('dotenv').config().
These files are also ignored by the default .gitignore configuration.

Answer 2

Firstly install a library called dotenv
npm i dotenv --save
Create a file called .env and place your API KEY in it and create .gitignore file place your .env in it
Example
Inside .env :
API_KEY= YOUR_APIKEY without quotation
Inside .gitignore:
.env
To use your API KEY inside app.js
Inside app.js:
require('dotenv').config()
let API_KEY = process.env.API_KEY;

Answer 3

Using .env file
Install the dotenv npm package
npm install dotenv --save
Create a .env file at the root of your project and store your SECRET_KEY like shown below.
SECRET_KEY="YOURSECRETKEYGOESHERE"
To get the value from the key use the following code
require('dotenv').config()
console.log(process.env)
For more information do check the link.
Using .gitignore file
.gitignore file is used to add those files which you don't want to commit to your git repository. In this case, you can create a file called.gitignore and in that file add the file names which should not be committed.
.gitignore
.DS_Store
secrets.txt
.env
#This is comments(# used for comments)
*.txt #this means all files with .txt extention will be ignored
To get the prebuild template for .gitignore files for nodeJs or any kind of project do check the repository down below.
https://github.com/github/gitignore