I would like to run a second node.js server (using same code) running from the same directory as the first. I use the default.json file in the config folder for the 1st server and use the config library, ie
let config = require('config');
for the first server.
What is the recommended way to specify an alternative config file. Could you specify a custom config file to use from the command line? How would I do this in node.js?
config is able to read different config files based on a few environmental variables.
Since you'll be running multiple instances on the same system, you'll need to change NODE_APP_INSTANCE:
Create config files like this:
config/default.json: Default configuration shared across all instances.
config/default-1.json: Specific configuration for instance 1. May override values of default.json and/or add new ones.
config/default-2.json: Specific configuration for instance 2. May override values of default.json and/or add new ones.
Start your node processes with individual values for NODE_APP_INSTANCE:
Instance 1: NODE_APP_INSTANCE=1 node index.js
Instance 2: NODE_APP_INSTANCE=2 node index.js
Checkout the docs for more info.
Related
Actually I have a nodejs express app with its config file for params like host, port, JWT token, DB params and more.
The question is if it could have sense to keep those params directly on environment variables (whitout any config file) and acces them without the need of do the "require" for config in all components and modules.
All examples I see uses a config file, probably something about security or memory?
config file is usually for setting the default values for your environment variables,
which is needed when you are writing the test cases and need to use default values or mock values,
and also you will have all the env variables at one place which is better management.
so if you have an environment variable x,
in config file you can keep it as
config.x = process.env.x || 'defaultVale or mockValue'
A config file lets your very quickly set the entire environment of a machine - eg S3 buckets, API urls, access keys, etc. If you separate these into separate process.env.VARIABLE then you would need to set each of these...for which you would likely make a script...and now you have an environment file again!
To access environment variables you can use process.env.VARIABLE in your nodejs code (is always a string), as long as the variable is set before the process is started.
Another possibility is using an .env files in nodejs. I think you have to npm install dotenv in your application. Ideally different instances (dev, prod....) have its own .env file, and you dont have to call require("dotenv") every time if you want to access the environment variable. Call it in the very beginning i.e) in app.js and you can access the environment variable in any of the sub-files.
I'm new to the Node.JS. I found few articles says we can use .env file to setup the process.env variable, e.g.,
PORT = 8081
but when I run the program in my node, it is still 8080 PORT (by default). The question is how can I setup the env variable in Node without any other 3rd party module's help? (I found there are few 3rd party package to management the env config, but... it is kind confused, different package might have different rule and more complex use cases; I want to start from clear way to study purely nodejs)
Update
I have read Node Environment Setting post on StackOverFlow, but they are refer using 3rd party package, none of them tells the detail steps. (Either windows system environment, or Linux environment variables... but how can I place the setting into my project folder?!)
Dotenv file have become the most popular mode to separate configuratione from app, using system environment variables (see 12factor config).
On node there exists a lot of libraries for loading config from .env file. The most popular is motdotla/dotenv.
You can read a lot of examples on readme file about the usage of this library
Make a config.js file with the following content:
module.exports = {
bar: 'someValue',
foo: 'otherValue'
...
}
Then you can do this in some file:
const config = require('./config');
let foo = config.foo;
Rather than having to change the URL passed in diet.listen() method on every server that I deploy my application on, there should be a better way to maintain such parameters in the application.
What options do we have to be able to manage such parameters?
You can create a '.json' file there at the root of the application and then do a require for the same. For example:
var configuration = require('./config.json');
The example expects you to save a file named 'config.json' with all your configuration as a JSON. The configuration object will hold all your settings that you might want to make dynamic and read at runtime.
i have a simple question.
When you use node + webpack you can easily configure whatever you want.
For example i can write in config default path for my app modules.
Haw can i do it in Meteor 1.3? do they have some config file such Webpack?
Meteor applications can store configuration options like API keys or global settings. An easy way to provide this configuration is with a settings.json file in the root of your Meteor application. The key/value pairs are available only on the server, but you can provide public access to settings by using public:
settings.json
{
"privateKey": "privateValue",
"public": {
"publicKey": "publicValue"
}
}
These values are available in your app using Meteor.settings.
From the Full Meteor Docs:
Meteor.settings contains deployment-specific configuration options. You can initialize settings by passing the --settings option (which takes the name of a file containing JSON data) to meteor run or meteor deploy. When running your server directly (e.g. from a bundle), you instead specify settings by putting the JSON directly into the METEOR_SETTINGS environment variable. If the settings object contains a key named public, then Meteor.settings.public will be available on the client as well as the server. All other properties of Meteor.settings are only defined on the server. You can rely on Meteor.settings and Meteor.settings.public being defined objects (not undefined) on both client and server even if there are no settings specified. Changes to Meteor.settings.public at runtime will be picked up by new client connections.
A good write-up can also be found on TheMeteorChef's Blog
Well, I've come with a problem. How can I store passwords, db url and important strings that should not go to my public version control?
I've come up with 3 solutions. The first works only on dev:
var config = require('./config');
var port = config.serverPort;
config.js
module.exports = {
'serverPort' : '8182'
}
The second one should work both on dev and prod. But the config.js file was added on the .gitignore file, so it won't be upload to the server. When the server tries to require config.js and can't find it, it will throw an error.
var config = require('./config');
var port = process.env.PORT || config.serverPort;
The third is to use only process.env variables, but this only works on production. And, if I'm testing on local machine, I may need to paste my secret strings and remember to remove it before sending to the public version control.
So, what should I do?
The common solution is to add a config.js.example file to version control (that contains empty/dummy values to document what's available).
Then you add config.js to .gitignore (or whatever suits your VCS).
To run your application you simply copy config.js.example to config.js and put in the proper values.
Of course the path to config.js can be taken from an environment variable to allow easily using different configs - but still, you wouldn't put the actual config files under version control (unless you have a separate private repo for config files etc)
It does make sense to always require a config file to exist. Even in development. While the default settings may be suitable, chances are good that many developers on your application want to configure things anyway or simply test things with non-default values.
The dotenv package can be used to load configuration and secrets from a .env file into process.env. For production, the .env file doesn't have to exist.
Example:
require('dotenv').config();
const oauth2 = require('simple-oauth2').create({
client: {
id: process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY,
secret: process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET
}
});
.env file:
TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY=bMm...
TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET=jQ39...
.gitignore:
.env
Here is my suggestion:
1. Using a mix of file and env variables
You can manage secret strings using a mix with config files and process.env variables.
You can do something like this:
var port = process.env.PORT || config.serverPort;
Since now, working with docker is the rule, you should try this one.
2. Using a Sample
You could add a config.json.example to your repo with an example of the variables you should define but here you will have to remember to change it when you deploy to production.
Just remember to add the real config.json to the .gitignore file.
This one is not my preferred but still an option.
There's a node package that handles this very similar to the Ruby On Rails approach with their credential system: schluessel
It lets you save your secrets in an encrypted vault file and stores the key separately. This vauft file can be checked into your version control system, as long as you keep your key file secret.
You can create vault files for different NODE_ENVs.
If you surrender the key either via a key file or via an environment variable,
you can access your credentials very easily from within your app.