env-var-helpers: Environment variable helpers

• Convenience functions to extract 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

• Handles true, "true", and "TRUE" identically

• Case-insensitive environment variable value detections

  • e.g. NODE_ENV=development, NODE_ENV=Development, & NODE_ENV=DEVELOPMENT treated the same

• Isomorphic, and works cross-platform/cross-environment:

  • Usable with Typescript, Node, Babel, Webpack, & standard browser JS (ES5 and up)

API

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

isDev / isDevelopment

Env var: NODE_ENV (process.env.NODE_ENV)

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'");

isProd / isProduction (NODE_ENV)

Env var: NODE_ENV

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

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

True if RELEASE_ENV is set to the namesake environment type. Defaults to 'dev'.

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

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=development node some-script.js:

import {releaseEnvShort}

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

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

isTestMode

Env var: TEST_MODE

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

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

isIeCompat / isIECompat

Env var: IE_COMPAT

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

Is true if NODE_ENV is production, TEST_SECURITY is true, or SECURITY_TEST is 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

Is true if AVOID_WEB is 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 the current script was run through Mocha, and never true otherwise

• Mocha sets this value automatically when it is launched

isLocal

Env var: IS_LOCAL

Is true if IS_LOCAL is true (defaults to false)

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

skipBasicAuth, isSkipBasicAuth, doSkipBasicAuth

Env var: SKIP_BASIC_AUTH

Is true if SKIP_BASIC_AUTH environment variable is true (defaults to false)

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

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)

Why?

• I hate duplicating functions between projects. These come up again and again.