enx

It is like dotenv and dot-env, but with the best of both and more features.

🆘 Help this project by conttributing to its documentation or developing its roadmap.

Features

• Multi-environment merging (NODE_ENV support)
• Custom file path
• Object-oriented variables instead just strings
• .env portability
• Execution of JS modules
• process.env variable injection
• process.env destructuring to config object
• Vue.js support with enx-vue-cli-plugin
• Webpack plugin

*Not checked features are in roadmap.

You can start a progressive migration from dot-env right now using enx!

Just change your require('dotenv').config() to require('@enx/env')() and start later to add some powerful enx features!

For more details, refer to the .env portability section.

Basic Usage

First of all, define your variables file in .env.json or any supported file type:

{
  "myconfig": "value"
}

Then, follow the steps below for using it in front-end or in back-end.

i We added front-end support just for Vue.js for now. If you use another framework, just require enx at your webpack configuration file and export it as a global variable using DefinePlugin. If you think this is too hard, help us developing an Webpack Plugin!

In front-end 🖼️

Install it as a devDependency via package manager

$ npm i -D @enx/vue-cli-plugin-enx

Then fetch variables from enx inside any Vue or JS file as a global variable:

const myvalue = enx.value;

See other considerations for Vue in enx Vue CLI plugin README.

In back-end ⚙

Install it via package manager

$ npm i -S @enx/env

Then, call enx in your app entry file

const enx = require('@enx/env')();

Now you can fetch variables from enx itself or global variable

const enx = require('@enx/env')();

const value = enx.myconfig;

or without requiring enx:

const value = global.enx.myconfig;

Enx file types precedence

1. .env files (see .env portability)
2. CommonJS modules exported in .js files (see Execution of JS modules)
3. .json files

Prefer always to use .env.json files.

If you want to change the filename pattern, refer to fileName option in Overriding load options.

Advanced usage

⭐ Multiple environments

By default, enx will look for a .env.json file if the environment name variable does not exist.

If it exists, it will be appended to .env.json file name.

For example, enx will look for a file named .env.production for an environment named "production".

Merging files

If there is both a .env.json file and a .env.ENVIRONMENT.json file, enx will merge both, but always with environment-scoped variables overriding the generic file.

⭐ .env portability

You can use your existent .env files with enx.

You just need them in your package folder, because that file type takes precedence over .env.json files.

Also, you don't need to replace process.env callings by enx if you don't want to, because enx config object will be injected normally in process.env variable.

⭐ Execution of JS modules

In a scenario you need computed config values, you can use a CommonJS module as your enx file, exporting the module as your config object.

Example:

.env.js

module.exports = {
  value: computeValue()
};

Make sure you don't have any .env files alongside .env.js files, because .env files takes precedence over JS files.

JS files also will override .env.json files because they take precedence.

⭐ process.env variable injection

By default, enx config object will be injected to process.env as key-value pairs.

Complex values are avaiable both as JSON strings and as path variables, for example, this config:

{
  "config": true,
  "another": {
    "config": "yes",
    "array": ["1"]
  }
}

...produces a process.env:

{
  config: 'true',
  another: '{"config":"yes","array":["1"]}',
  another_config: 'yes',
  another_array: '["1"]',
  another_array_0: '1'
}

So, in the end you can access a config key another.config using both enx.another.config or process.env.another_config.

---

ℹ Runtime injected process.env variables is avaiable just in the script execution scope. This means that other running Node.js processes cannot access the same variables and, if you kill the process with injected variables, they will not be avaiable next execution. Also, enx config object is injected to process.env as key-value pairs because process.env just support key-value pairs.

ℹ Enx config object is also injected to globalVar.enx as an object.

⭐ process.env destructuring to config object

By default, enx will destructure the process.env variable by transforming key-value pairs to objects.

For example, these two process.env variables:

AUTH_URL="http://url.com"
AUTH_KEY="secretkey"

...will be transformed to:

{
  AUTH: {
    URL: 'http://url.com',
    KEY: 'secrectkey'
  }
}

...and will be avaiable through enx as:

enx.AUTH.URL // → 'http://url.com'
enx.AUTH.KEY // → 'secrectkey'

🌝 It means, ironically, that process.ENV.NODE_ENV will be avaiable as enx.NODE.ENV

Overriding load options

You can override enx default options passing an object with the options you want to customize:

const enx = require('@enx/env')({ options });

These are the default enx options:

{
  globalVar = global,
  fileName = '.env.${env}.json',
  env = process.env.NODE_ENV,
  cwd = process.cwd(),
  injectToProcess = true,
  injectProcessEnvToEnx = true,
  debug = false,
  logger = console.log
}

globalVar string

Global variable to inject variables. Defaults to Node.js global variable.

fileName string

Name of the variables file. ${env} is a token that will be replaced by current application environment (NODE_ENV by default).

env string

Name of the environment variable that holds the environment name. Defaults to NODE_ENV.

cwd string

Folder containing the variables file. Defaults to process.cwd() (project root).

Example for a relative './config' folder: enx({ cwd: './config' }).

injectToProcess boolean

Whether if enx config object should be injected do global process.env variable. Defaults to true.

injectProcessEnvToEnx boolean

Whether if original process.env should be destructured and injected to enx config object. Defaults to true.

debug boolean

Flag to activate error and debug messages to a logger method.

logger function

Logger method to be used by logging messages if debug option is enabled. Defaults to console.log.