Sometimes you need to pass data to your application. E.g: API key, credentials, debug parameters. For this reason, Qovery allows you to securely pass your data by using Environment Variables.

Do you need to keep secure your environment variable? Use Secret instead of Environment Variable.

Here is a short video to show how to use environment variables.

Tutorial

Here is an example on how to pass an environment variable to a NodeJS app.

Steps are similar for Secrets.

Let's first create a new Node.js application that uses environment variables.

1. Create an environment variable

   Let's say that we pass an environment variable ENABLE_DEBUG that turns on the debug info from the app.

   Click on the environment variables tab inside your app view.

   

   Click on "create", and then add the ENABLE_DEBUG variable with a boolean value.

   

2. Use the environment variable in the app

   Create app.js file - a simple Node.js HTTP server application:

   app.js

   const http = require('http');
   
   const hostname = '0.0.0.0';
   const port = 3333;
   
   const enableDebug = process.env.ENABLE_DEBUG
   
   if (enableDebug) {
     console.log("debug mode enabled");
   }
   
   const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
     res.statusCode = 200;
     res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
     res.end("hello world");
   });
   
   server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
     console.log(`Server running at http://${hostname}:${port}/`);
   });

   As you can see, to get access to your environment variable you just need to use process.env.ENABLE_DEBUG. Environment variables are injected at the build and run time.

How was it? Did this tutorial work?  Yes  No

This guide was an introduction on how to use the Environment Variables. To know more about Environment Variables and Secrets, go to our detailed documentation.

Do you want to bulk import your Environment Variables? Check out this tutorial