env-var-helpers

Environment variable helper functions & pre-resolved values

• Extracts & resolves (to type) commonly used values from process.env without fuss

Helpers to get info from:

• NODE_ENV
• LOG_LEVEL
• RELEASE_ENV
• LOADED_MOCHA_OPTS (defined by default by Mocha)
• TEST_MODE
• AVOID_WEB
• TEST_SECURITY / SECURITY_TEST
• IE_COMPAT
• IS_LOCAL
• SKIP_BASIC_AUTH

Converts boolean strings to boolean: e.g. true, "true", and "TRUE" all become true

Case-insensitive environment variable value detections

• NODE_ENV=development, Development, & DEVELOPMENT all resolve to 'development'

Isomorphic: usable with Typescript, Node, Babel, Webpack, & browser JS (ES5 and up)

Basic examples

Script run with NODE_ENV=prod & LOG_LEVEL is not set:

import {
    isDevelopment,
    isQA,
    isVerbose,
    nodeEnv,
    logLevel,
    isLocal,
    skipBasicAuth
} from 'env-var-helpers';

if (isDevelopment) {
    // Initialize mobx-react-devtools if NODE_ENV=dev, development, or not set
}

if (isQA) {
    // Inject QA tools if RELEASE_ENV=qa
}

if (isVerbose) {
    console.log(`Log this only if LOG_LEVEL=verbose`);
}

if (isLocal) {
    // Download latest JSON from remote API for local reference if IS_LOCAL=true
}

if (!skipBasicAuth) {
    // Activate basic auth if SKIP_BASIC_AUTH=true or NODE_ENV=production
}

console.log(nodeEnv);  // => 'production'
console.log(logLevel); // => 'info' (shows default since it's not set)

---

API

All values are static boolean constants (true | false), unless otherwise specified.

isDevelopment, isDev

Env var: NODE_ENV (process.env.NODE_ENV) Default: true

True if NODE_ENV=dev or NODE_ENV=development

Example:

import {isDev, isDevelopment} from 'env-var-helpers';

if (isDev) console.log("run if NODE_ENV is 'development'");
if (isDevelopment) console.log("run if NODE_ENV is 'development'");

isProduction, isProd (NODE_ENV)

Env var: NODE_ENV Default: false

True if NODE_ENV=prod or NODE_ENV=production

Example:

import {isProd, isProduction} from 'env-var-helpers';

if (isProd) console.log("run if NODE_ENV is 'production'");
if (isProduction) console.log("run if NODE_ENV is 'production'");

isTrace, isSilly, isVerbose, isDebug, isInfo, isWarn, isError, isWTF / isWtf

Env var: LOG_LEVEL Default: true for isInfo & up, false for isDebug & below

True if LOG_LEVEL is set to the namesake log level or one that is more verbose

Example:

import {isVerbose, isWTF} from 'env-var-helpers';

if (isVerbose) {
    console.log('Display this if LOG_LEVEL is "trace", "silly", or "verbose"');
}

if (isWTF) {
    console.log("Log if LOG_LEVEL is wtf, error, warn, info, debug, verbose, silly, or trace");
}

isReleaseEnvDev, isReleaseEnvProd, isReleaseEnvQA / isQA, isReleaseEnvUAT / isUAT

Env var: RELEASE_ENV Type: string Default: true for isReleaseEnvDev, false for all others

True if RELEASE_ENV is set to the namesake environment type.

Example: if we run the following script with RELEASE_ENV=qa node some-script.js:

import {isQA, isReleaseEnvQA} from 'env-var-helpers';
import {isUAT, isReleaseEnvUAT, isReleaseEnvDev, isReleaseEnvProd} from 'env-var-helpers';

// Below both output "Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=qa"
if (isReleaseEnvQA) console.log('Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=qa');
if (isQA)           console.log('Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=qa');

// The following don't run, because the RELEASE_ENV doesn't match
if (isReleaseEnvDev)  console.log('Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=dev or development');
if (isReleaseEnvProd) console.log('Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=prod or production');
if (isReleaseEnvUAT)  console.log('Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=uat');
if (isUAT)            console.log('Runs if process.env.RELEASE_ENV=uat');

releaseEnvShort (RELEASE_ENV)

Env var: RELEASE_ENV Type: string Default: 'dev', or short-form of NODE_ENV value if set

Current release environment value, in 2-4 letter form.

Mapping:

• development -> dev
• qa -> qa
• uat -> uat
• production -> prod

For use when determing which APIs to make requests to based on current release environment

• e.g. in "QA", POST to 'qa.example.ca/api/login'; In "dev", POST to 'dev.example.ca/api/login'

Example

Run with RELEASE_ENV=qa node some-script.js:

import {releaseEnvShort}

const loginRequestRoute = `https://www.${releaseEnvShort}.example.com/api/login`;

console.log(loginRequestRoute); // => "https://www.qa.example.com/api/login"

isDevNonReleaseEnv

True if NODE_ENV=dev or development, and RELEASE_ENV isn't qa, uat, or prod

Purpose (example): sometimes we want a release environment to run code in development mode, but to still explicitly exclude certain development code actions (such as setting certain default values)

isTestMode

Env var: TEST_MODE Default: false

Is true if process.env.TEST_MODE is set to true (TEST_MODE=true)

• e.g. script was run with: TEST_MODE=true node some-script.js

isIeCompat / isIECompat

Env var: IE_COMPAT Default: false

Is true if process.env.IE_COMPAT is set to true.

• e.g. script was run with: IE_COMPAT=true node some-script.js

isProdOrSecurityTest / prodOrSecurityTest

Env vars: TEST_SECURITY & SECURITY_TEST Default: false

Is true if NODE_ENV=production, TEST_SECURITY=true, or SECURITY_TEST=true e.g. script was run with either: * SECURITY_TEST=true node some-script.js * NODE_ENV=production node some-script.js

isAvoidWeb, avoidWeb

Env var: AVOID_WEB Default: false

Is true if AVOID_WEB=true.

Purpose: environment variable requesting total avoidance of internet usage in a build.

• e.g. no CDNs (usage of local bundles instead)

isMocha, isMochaEnv, runByMocha

Env vars: LOADED_MOCHA_OPTS & mocha

Is true if process.env.mocha or process.env.LOADED_MOCHA_OPTS is 'true'.

Should always be true if Mocha ran the current script, and never true otherwise.

• Mocha sets this value automatically when it is launched.

isLocal

Env var: IS_LOCAL Default: false

Is true if IS_LOCAL is true.

Purpose: set to true if running in local environment (i.e. on localhost).

skipBasicAuth, isSkipBasicAuth, doSkipBasicAuth

Env var: SKIP_BASIC_AUTH Default: false

Is true if SKIP_BASIC_AUTH environment variable is true.

Purpose: set to true for turning basic auth off. Use to make basic auth handling conditional, based on route and/or deployment environment, etc.

nodeEnv

Env var: NODE_ENV Type: string Default: 'development'

Directly returns the NODE_ENV value. Automatically resolves it long-form e.g. 'dev' becomes 'development'.

logLevel

Env var: LOG_LEVEL Type: string Default: 'info'

Directly returns the LOG_LEVEL value.

---

Environment variables handled

NODE_ENV

Standard NODE_ENV values, as used by Express and React

Values:

• development (DEFAULT)
• production

LOG_LEVEL

Values:

• trace
• silly
• verbose
• debug
• info
• warn
• error
• wtf

RELEASE_ENV

Generally used to "mark" different deployment targets: e.g. www.dev.example.com, www.qa.example.com

Values:

• dev / development
• prod / production
• qa
• uat

TEST_MODE

If unit tests are currently being run, set this to true

Values:

• true
• false (DEFAULT)

SECURITY_TEST / TEST_SECURITY

Flag to turn security features on/off in dev without switching to full prod mode For use e.g. when working with TLS, authentication, CSRF blockers, etc.

Values:

• true
• false (DEFAULT)

IE_COMPAT

Turn on to compile app to run in Internet Explorer. Automatically set to true (if env-var-helpers imported), if NODE_ENV=production.

Values:

• true
• false (DEFAULT)

mocha / LOADED_MOCHA_OPTS

LOADED_MOCHA_OPTS automatically set to true if code was run by Mocha. process.env.mocha is an alternative if you want to manually declare that code is run by Mocha

• In this case, declare process.env.mocha = true at the top of your test files

Values:

• true
• false (DEFAULT)

IS_LOCAL

Turn on if running in localhost - i.e. if special behaviours are needed locally

Values:

• true
• false (DEFAULT)

SKIP_BASIC_AUTH

Set to true to shut basic auth off on certain routes

Values:

• true
• false (DEFAULT)