Environment variables are key-value pairs that enable you to change the behavior of our application depending on the environment. Begin supports environment variables while doing local development and any of the deployed environments.
Local environment variables
Let’s test our environment variables locally before we deploy the code that uses them to a staging or production environment. The quickest way to include an environment variable locally is to create a .env
file at the root of your project. Let’s add a DEBUGGING
environment variable to this file.
DEBUGGING=on
Now let’s use it in some code. Open app/elements/my-footer.mjs
and update the code, so it looks like this:
export default function Element ({ html, state }) {
const showDebugInfo = process.env.DEBUGGING === 'on'
return html`
<footer>
${ showDebugInfo ? `<pre>${JSON.stringify(state, null, 2)}</pre>` : ''}
</footer>`
}
We are reading the value of DEBUGGING
from process.env
. If the value is on
we’ll show the debugging information. Otherwise, we’ll skip it. Open up http://localhost:3333/about and you should see:
Now, updated the .env
file so DEBUGGING
is off.
DEBUGGING=off
The http://localhost:3333/about will automatically refresh and the debugging info is gone!
Remote environment variables
You can set up different environment variables for each of your deployed environments (see yesterday for instructions on creating environments). For our example, we are going to assume you have staging
and production
environments.
Let’s set our DEBUGGING
environment variable to on
for staging
but off
for production
. In order to do that, execute the following commands:
begin env create --env staging --name DEBUGGING --value on
begin deploy --env staging
begin env create --env production --name DEBUGGING --value off
begin deploy --env production
Now if you go to your staging
URL you will see the debugging information:
But, if you got to your production
URL you will not see the debugging information.
Next Steps
Speaking of debugging, how do we get the logs once we deploy to the cloud? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
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