Node.js Everywhere with Environment Variables

Maybe because they are called “Environment Variables.”

Just the words “Environment Variable” trigger a PTSD-laced flashback in which I am trying to add the correct path to the Java Home directory on Windows. Does it go in PATH or JAVA_HOME or both? Do I need to end it with a semicolon? WHY AM I USING JAVA?

KILL_ME

In Node, environment variables can be global (like on Windows), but are often used with a specific process that you want to run. For instance, if you had a web application, you might have environment variables that define:

• The HTTP Port to listen on
• The Database Connection String
• The JAVA_HOME…wait…no — sorry. The healing process takes time.

In this context, environment variables are really more like “Configuration Settings.” See how much nicer that sounds?

If you’ve done .NET before, you might be familiar with something like a web.config file. Node environment variables work much the same was as settings in a web.config — they’re a way for you to pass in information that you don’t want to hard code.

Quoting yourself is the pinnacle of delusion

But how do you use these variables in your Node application? I had a hard time finding good resources on this with the requisite amount of Java jokes, so I decided to create one. Here are some of the different ways you can define and then read environment variables in your Node applications.

Pass it in the terminal

You can pass environment variables on the terminal as part of your Node process. For instance, if you were running an Express app and wanted to pass in the port, you could do it like this…

PORT=65534 node bin/www

Fun fact: port 65535 is the largest TCP/IP network value available. How do I know that? StackOverflow of course. How does anybody know anything? But you can only go as high as port 65534 for a web app because that’s the highest port Chrome will connect to. How do I know that? Because Liran Tal told me in the comments. You should follow him. Between the two of us he’s the one who knows what he’s doing.

Now to use the variable in your code, you would use the process.env object.

var port = process.env.PORT;

But this could get ugly. If you had a connection string, you probably wouldn’t want to start passing multiple variables on the terminal. It would look like you are hoarding configuration values, and someone who loves you could stage an intervention and that would be awkward for everyone involved.

PORT=65534 DB_CONN="mongodb://react-cosmos-db:swQOhAsVjfHx3Q9V[email protected]react-cosmos-db.documents.azure.com:19373/?ssl=true&replicaSet=globaldb" SECRET_KEY=b6264fca-8adf-457f-a94f-5a4b0d1ca2b9  node bin/www

This doesn’t scale, and everyone wants to scale. According to every architect I’ve ever sat in a meeting with, “scaling” is more important than the application even working.

So let’s look at another way: .env files.

Use a .env file

.env files allow you to put your environment variables inside a file. You just create a new file called .env in your project and slap your variables in there on different lines.

PORT=65534

DB_CONN="mongodb://react-cosmos-db:swQOhAsVjfHx3Q9V[email protected]react-cosmos-db.documents.azure.com:10255/?ssl=true&replicaSet=globaldb"

SECRET_KEY="b6264fca-8adf-457f-a94f-5a4b0d1ca2b9"

To read these values, there are a couple of options, but the easiest is to use the dotenv package from npm.

npm install dotenv --save

Then you just require that package in your project wherever you need to use environment variables. The dotenv package will pick up that file and load those settings into Node.

Use dotenv to read .env vars into Noderequire('dotenv').config();

var MongoClient = require('mongodb').MongoClient;// Reference .env vars off of the process.env objectMongoClient.connect(process.env.DB_CONN, function(err, db) {  if(!err) {    console.log("We are connected");  }});

PROTIP: Don’t check your .env file into Github. It has all you secrets in it and Github will email you and tell you so. Don’t be like me.

OK — Nice. But this is kind of a pain. You have to put this in every single file where you want to use environment variables AND you have to deploy the dotenv to production where you don’t actually need it. I’m not a huge fan of deploying pointless code, but I guess I just described my whole career.

Luckily, you are using VS Code (because of course you are), so you have some other options.

Working with .env files in VS Code

First off, you can install the DotENV extension for code which will give you nice syntax highlighting in your .env files.

DotENV - Visual Studio Marketplace
_Extension for Visual Studio Code - Support for dotenv file syntax_marketplace.visualstudio.com

The VS Code Debugger also offers some more convenient options for loading values from .env files if you are using the VS Code Debugger.

VS Code Launch Configurations

The Node debugger for VS Code (already there, no need to install anything) supports loading in .env files via launch configurations. You can read more more about Launch Configurations here.

When you create a basic Node Launch Configuration (click on the gear and select Node), you can do one or both of two things.

The first is you can simply pass variables in on the launch config.

This is nice, but the fact that every value has to be a string bothers me a bit. It’s a number, not a string. JavaScript only has, like, 3 types. Don’t take one of them away from me.

There is a simpler way here. We’ve already learned to love .env files, so instead of passing them, we can just give VS Code the name of the .env file.

And as long as we are starting our process from VS Code, environment variables files are loaded in. We don’t have to mutilate numbers into strings and we aren’t deploying worthless code into production. Well, at least you aren’t.

Starting with NPM instead of Node

You might have gotten this far and thought, “Burke, I never ever run node anything. It’s always an npm script like npm start”.

In this case you can still use VS Code Launch configs. Instead of using a standard Node Launch process, you add a config that is a “Launch Via NPM” task.

Now you can add back in your envFile line and tweak the runtimeArgs so that they launch the correct script. This is usually something like “start” or “debug”.

Note that you have to add the --inspect flag to your npm script so that VS Code can attach the debugger. Otherwise the task will launch, but the VS Code debugger will time out like me trying to get a date in high school.

Production environment variables

So far we’ve looked at how to define variables for development. You likely won’t use .env files in production, and VS Code Launch Configurations aren’t going to be super helpful on a server.

In production, variables will be defined however your platform of choice allows you to do so. In the case of Azure, there are 3 different ways to define and manage environment variables.

The first way is to use the Azure CLI.

az webapp config appsettings set -g MyResourceGroup -n MyApp --settings PORT=65534

Which works, but, ew.

Another way is via the Azure web portal. I don’t always use a web portal, but when I do, it’s to set environment variables.

In the case of Azure, these are called “Application Settings”.

And since you are using VS Code, you can install the App Service extension and manage all the App Settings right from the editor.

I love not having to leave VS Code to do anything. I would write emails in VS Code if I could.

WAIT A MINUTE!

markdown-mail - Visual Studio Marketplace
_Extension for Visual Studio Code - Using markdown to write your email and send！_marketplace.visualstudio.com

Now you know

Now you know what I know (which aint a lot, let me tell you) and I feel like I accomplished my goal of a tasteful amount of Java jokes along the way. Just in case I didn’t, I’ll leave you with this one.

✅ 30s ad

☞ Getting Started with NodeJS for Beginners

☞ Learn Nodejs by building 12 projects

☞ Supreme NodeJS Course - For Beginners

☞ NodeJS & MEAN Stack - for Beginners - In Easy way!

☞ Node.js for beginners, 10 developed projects, 100% practical

#node-js #javascript

What is GEEK

Buddha Community

Hire Dedicated Node.js Developers - Hire Node.js Developers

If you look at the backend technology used by today’s most popular apps there is one thing you would find common among them and that is the use of NodeJS Framework. Yes, the NodeJS framework is that effective and successful.

If you wish to have a strong backend for efficient app performance then have NodeJS at the backend.

WebClues Infotech offers different levels of experienced and expert professionals for your app development needs. So hire a dedicated NodeJS developer from WebClues Infotech with your experience requirement and expertise.

So what are you waiting for? Get your app developed with strong performance parameters from WebClues Infotech

For inquiry click here: https://www.webcluesinfotech.com/hire-nodejs-developer/

Book Free Interview: https://bit.ly/3dDShFg

#hire dedicated node.js developers #hire node.js developers #hire top dedicated node.js developers #hire node.js developers in usa & india #hire node js development company #hire the best node.js developers & programmers

Why use Node.js for Web Development? Benefits and Examples of Apps

Front-end web development has been overwhelmed by JavaScript highlights for quite a long time. Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, and most of all online pages use JS for customer side activities. As of late, it additionally made a shift to cross-platform mobile development as a main technology in React Native, Nativescript, Apache Cordova, and other crossover devices. 

Throughout the most recent couple of years, Node.js moved to backend development as well. Designers need to utilize a similar tech stack for the whole web project without learning another language for server-side development. Node.js is a device that adjusts JS usefulness and syntax to the backend. 

What is Node.js? 

Node.js isn’t a language, or library, or system. It’s a runtime situation: commonly JavaScript needs a program to work, however Node.js makes appropriate settings for JS to run outside of the program. It’s based on a JavaScript V8 motor that can run in Chrome, different programs, or independently. 

The extent of V8 is to change JS program situated code into machine code — so JS turns into a broadly useful language and can be perceived by servers. This is one of the advantages of utilizing Node.js in web application development: it expands the usefulness of JavaScript, permitting designers to coordinate the language with APIs, different languages, and outside libraries.

What Are the Advantages of Node.js Web Application Development? 

Of late, organizations have been effectively changing from their backend tech stacks to Node.js. LinkedIn picked Node.js over Ruby on Rails since it took care of expanding responsibility better and decreased the quantity of servers by multiple times. PayPal and Netflix did something comparative, just they had a goal to change their design to microservices. We should investigate the motivations to pick Node.JS for web application development and when we are planning to hire node js developers. 

Amazing Tech Stack for Web Development 

The principal thing that makes Node.js a go-to environment for web development is its JavaScript legacy. It’s the most well known language right now with a great many free devices and a functioning local area. Node.js, because of its association with JS, immediately rose in ubiquity — presently it has in excess of 368 million downloads and a great many free tools in the bundle module. 

Alongside prevalence, Node.js additionally acquired the fundamental JS benefits: 

• quick execution and information preparing; 
• exceptionally reusable code; 
• the code is not difficult to learn, compose, read, and keep up; 
• tremendous asset library, a huge number of free aides, and a functioning local area. 

In addition, it’s a piece of a well known MEAN tech stack (the blend of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js — four tools that handle all vital parts of web application development). 

Designers Can Utilize JavaScript for the Whole Undertaking 

This is perhaps the most clear advantage of Node.js web application development. JavaScript is an unquestionable requirement for web development. Regardless of whether you construct a multi-page or single-page application, you need to know JS well. On the off chance that you are now OK with JavaScript, learning Node.js won’t be an issue. Grammar, fundamental usefulness, primary standards — every one of these things are comparable. 

In the event that you have JS designers in your group, it will be simpler for them to learn JS-based Node than a totally new dialect. What’s more, the front-end and back-end codebase will be basically the same, simple to peruse, and keep up — in light of the fact that they are both JS-based. 

A Quick Environment for Microservice Development 

There’s another motivation behind why Node.js got famous so rapidly. The environment suits well the idea of microservice development (spilling stone monument usefulness into handfuls or many more modest administrations). 

Microservices need to speak with one another rapidly — and Node.js is probably the quickest device in information handling. Among the fundamental Node.js benefits for programming development are its non-obstructing algorithms.

Node.js measures a few demands all at once without trusting that the first will be concluded. Many microservices can send messages to one another, and they will be gotten and addressed all the while. 

Versatile Web Application Development 

Node.js was worked in view of adaptability — its name really says it. The environment permits numerous hubs to run all the while and speak with one another. Here’s the reason Node.js adaptability is better than other web backend development arrangements. 

Node.js has a module that is liable for load adjusting for each running CPU center. This is one of numerous Node.js module benefits: you can run various hubs all at once, and the environment will naturally adjust the responsibility. 

Node.js permits even apportioning: you can part your application into various situations. You show various forms of the application to different clients, in light of their age, interests, area, language, and so on. This builds personalization and diminishes responsibility. Hub accomplishes this with kid measures — tasks that rapidly speak with one another and share a similar root. 

What’s more, Node’s non-hindering solicitation handling framework adds to fast, letting applications measure a great many solicitations. 

Control Stream Highlights

Numerous designers consider nonconcurrent to be one of the two impediments and benefits of Node.js web application development. In Node, at whatever point the capacity is executed, the code consequently sends a callback. As the quantity of capacities develops, so does the number of callbacks — and you end up in a circumstance known as the callback damnation. 

In any case, Node.js offers an exit plan. You can utilize systems that will plan capacities and sort through callbacks. Systems will associate comparable capacities consequently — so you can track down an essential component via search or in an envelope. At that point, there’s no compelling reason to look through callbacks.

 

Final Words

So, these are some of the top benefits of Nodejs in web application development. This is how Nodejs is contributing a lot to the field of web application development. 

I hope now you are totally aware of the whole process of how Nodejs is really important for your web project. If you are looking to hire a node js development company in India then I would suggest that you take a little consultancy too whenever you call. 

Good Luck!

Original Source

#node.js development company in india #node js development company #hire node js developers #hire node.js developers in india #node.js development services #node.js development

Node JS Development Company| Node JS Web Developers-SISGAIN

Top organizations and start-ups hire Node.js developers from SISGAIN for their strategic software development projects in Illinois, USA. On the off chance that you are searching for a first rate innovation to assemble a constant Node.js web application development or a module, Node.js applications are the most appropriate alternative to pick. As Leading Node.js development company, we leverage our profound information on its segments and convey solutions that bring noteworthy business results. For more information email us at hello@sisgain.com

#node.js development services #hire node.js developers #node.js web application development #node.js development company #node js application

Top 10 NodeJs app Development Companies- ValueCoders

Node.js is a prominent tech trend in the space of web and mobile application development. It has been proven very efficient and useful for a variety of application development. Thus, all business owners are eager to leverage this technology for creating their applications.

Are you striving to develop an application using Node.js? But can’t decide which company to hire for NodeJS app development? Well! Don’t stress over it, as the following list of NodeJS app development companies is going to help you find the best partner.

Let’s take a glance at top NodeJS application development companies to hire developers in 2021 for developing a mind-blowing application solution.

Before enlisting companies, I would like to say that every company has a foundation on which they thrive. Their end goals, qualities, and excellence define their competence. Thus, I prepared this list by considering a number of aspects. While making this list, I have considered the following aspects:

• Review and rating
• Enlisted by software peer & forums
• Hourly price
• Offered services
• Year of experience (Average 8+ years)
• Credibility & Excellence
• Served clients and more

I believe this list will help you out in choosing the best NodeJS service provider company. So, now let’s explore the top NodeJS developer companies to choose from in 2021.

#1. JSGuru

JSGuru is a top-rated NodeJS app development company with an innovative team of dedicated NodeJS developers engaged in catering best-class UI/UX design, software products, and AWS professional services.

It is a team of one of the most talented developers to hire for all types of innovative solution development, including social media, dating, enterprise, and business-oriented solutions. The company has worked for years with a number of startups and launched a variety of products by collaborating with big-name corporations like T-systems.

If you want to hire NodeJS developers to secure an outstanding application, I would definitely suggest them. They serve in the area of eLearning, FinTech, eCommerce, Telecommunications, Mobile Device Management, and more.

• Ratings: 4.9/5.0

• Founded: 2006

• Headquarters: Banja Luka, Bosnia, and Herzegovina

• Price: Starting from $50/hour

Visit Website - https://www.valuecoders.com/blog/technology-and-apps/top-node-js-app-development-companies

#node js developer #hire node js developer #hiring node js developers #node js development company #node.js development company #node js development services

Node JS Development Company | Hire Node.js Developers

The NineHertz promises to develop a pro-active and easy solution for your enterprise. It has reached the heights in Node js web development and is considered as one of the top-notch Node js development company across the globe.

The NineHertz aims to design a best Node js development solution to improve their branding status and business profit.

Looking to hire the leading Node js development company?

#node js development company #nodejs development company #node.js development company #node.js development companies #node js web development #node development company