@ngx-env/builder
Easily inject environment variables into your Angular applications
- ✅ Easy to use, no configuration required
- ✅ Up to date with latest Angular versions
- ✅ Supports all Angular CLI commands
- ✅ Supports
process.env
and import.meta.env
usage in TypeScript - ✅ Loading priorities of environment variables
- ✅ Hierarchical cascading configuration in monorepo projects (Nx, Turbo, etc.)
- ✅ Filters sensitive variables using a Regular Expression
- ✅ Used by popular repositories
- ✅ Active development and support
Table of contents
Quick start
- Add @ngx-env to your CLI project
ng add @ngx-env/builder
- Define Environment Variables in
.env
NG_APP_VERSION=$npm_package_version
NG_APP_COMMIT=$GITHUB_SHA
NG_APP_ENABLE_SENTRY=false
- Use in TS and HTML
@Component({
selector: "app-main",
})
export class MainComponent {
branch = import.meta.env.NG_APP_BRANCH_NAME;
branch = process.env.NG_APP_BRANCH_NAME;
}
<span> {{ branch }} </span>
<span> {{ 'process.env.NG_APP_VERSION' | env }} </span>
<span> {{ 'NG_APP_COMMIT' | env }} </span>
<head>
<title>NgApp on %NG_APP_BRANCH_NAME% - %NG_APP_COMMIT%</title>
</head>
- Run your CLI commands
npm start
NG_APP_BRANCH_NAME=$GITHUB_HEAD_REF ng test
NG_APP_ENABLE_SENTRY=true npm run build
Using Environment Variables
Your project can consume variables declared in your environment as if they were declared locally in your JS files.
These environment variables can be useful for:
- displaying information conditionally based on where the project is deployed
- consuming sensitive data that lives outside of version control.
The environment variables will be defined for you on process.env
. For example, having an environment variable named NG_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE
will be exposed in your JS as process.env.NG_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE
.
The environment variables are embedded during the build time.
⚠ Important
Do not store any secrets (such as private API keys) in your Angular app!
Environment variables are embedded into the build, meaning anyone can view them by inspecting your app's files.
NG_APP_*
or Custom Prefix
You must create custom environment variables beginning with NG_APP_
or using any custom prefix.
If you want to have a shorter prefix like NG_
or if you want to access some domain specific variables directly, you can set the prefix in the angular.json
configuration. You can use any valid regular expression to filter the variables.
"architect": {
"build": {
"builder": "@ngx-env/builder:browser",
"options": {
...
"scripts": []
"ngxEnv": {
"prefix": "(ORG|GITHUB|)_"
}
}
}
}
"architect": {
"build": {
"builder": "@ngx-env/builder:browser",
"options": {
...
"scripts": []
"ngxEnv": {
"prefix": "ORG_"
}
}
}
}
"architect": {
"build": {
"builder": "@ngx-env/builder:browser",
"options": {
...
"scripts": []
"ngxEnv": {
"prefix": "ORG_"
}
}
}
}
"architect": {
"build": {
"builder": "@ngx-env/builder:browser",
"options": {
...
"scripts": []
"ngxEnv": {
"prefix": "ORG_"
}
}
}
}
or using ng config
ng config projects.YOUR_APP_NAME.architect.build.options.ngxEnv.prefix 'ORG_'
Any other variables not starting with NG_APP_
or your custom prefix will be ignored to avoid accidentally exposing a private key on the machine that could have the same name.
See how to use system environment variables.
Changing any environment variables will require you to restart the development server if it is running.
NG_APP_ENV
There is also a built-in environment variable called NG_APP_ENV
. You can read it from process.env.NG_APP_ENV
.
By default NG_APP_ENV
is set to NODE_ENV
but you are free to override it.
Note that NG_APP_ENV
remains available even if you define a custom prefix not matching NG_APP
.
Having access to the NG_APP_ENV
is also useful for performing actions conditionally:
if (process.env.NG_APP_ENV !== "production") {
analytics.disable();
}
When you compile the app with npm run build
, the minification step will strip out this condition, and the resulting bundle will be smaller.
Usage In Templates
You have two options to consume an environment variable in your component's template.
- From your component class
@Component({
selector: "app-footer",
})
export class FooterComponent {
public version = process.env.NG_APP_VERSION;
}
{{ version }}
- Using the
env
pipe
npm install @ngx-env/core
import { NgxEnvModule } from "@ngx-env/core";
@NgModule({
declarations: [FoooterComponent],
imports: [CommonModule, NgxEnvModule],
})
export class FooterModule {}
{{ 'process.env.NG_APP_ENV' | env }}
{{ 'NG_APP_ENV' | env }}
Usage in Index.html
You can also access the environment variables starting with NG_APP_
in the index.html
.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>NgApp on %NG_APP_BRANCH_NAME%</title>
</head>
<body>
<app-root></app-root>
</body>
</html>
Defining Environment Variables
Command Line
Defining environment variables can vary between OSes. It’s also important to know that this manner is temporary for the life of the shell session.
Windows (cmd.exe)
set "NG_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE=abcdef" && npm start
(Note: Quotes around the variable assignment are required to avoid a trailing whitespace.)
Windows (Powershell)
($env:NG_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE = "abcdef") -and (npm start)
Linux, macOS (Bash)
NG_APP_NOT_SECRET_CODE=abcdef npm start
In .env
@ngx-env/builder
uses dotenv to support loading environment variables from .env
files.
.env
files are to be stored alongside the package.json
.
@ngx-env/builder
loads .env
files with these specific names for the following NG_APP_ENV
values, files on the top have less priority than files on the bottom.
An env file for a specific mode (e.g. .env.production) will take higher priority than a generic one (e.g. .env).
valid .env filenames | NG_APP_ENV=* | NG_APP_ENV=test |
---|
.env | ✔️ | ✔️ |
.env.local | ✔️ | ✖️ |
.env.${NG_APP_ENV} | ✔️ | ✔️ |
.env.${NG_APP_ENV}.local | ✔️ | ✔️ |
In addition, environment variables that already exist when the CLI is executed have the highest priority and will not be overwritten by .env files. For example, when running NG_APP_SOME_KEY=123 ng serve
.
Expanding .env
You can expand variables already available on your machine for use in your .env
For example:
NG_APP_VERSION=$npm_package_version
NG_APP_HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME
Or expand variables local to the current .env
file:
DOMAIN=www.example.com
NG_APP_FOO=$DOMAIN/foo
NG_APP_BAR=$DOMAIN/bar
Cascading Environment Variables
@ngx-env/builder supports monorepo projects with multiple applications.
When you have multiple applications in your monorepo, you can define a common .env.*
file in the root of your monorepo and override it in each application or any other subdirectory below the root.
This is useful when you have a common configuration for all applications and want to override it for a specific application.
In order to do that, you need to define the root
property in the ngxEnv
section of your angular.json
file.
"ngxEnv": {
"prefix": "NGX_",
"root": "../../"
},
For example, you have the following directory structure:
/home/user/monorepo
apps
frontend1
.env
frontend2
.env.dev
.env
.env
.env.dev
and the configuration below in frontends' angular.json:
"ngxEnv": {
"prefix": "NGX_",
"root": "../../"
},
Consumed dot env files will be ordered by hierarchy as follows:
/home/user/monorepo/apps/frontend1/.env
/home/user/monorepo/.env.dev
/home/user/monorepo/.env
/home/user/monorepo/apps/frontend2/.env.dev
/home/user/monorepo/apps/frontend2/.env
/home/user/monorepo/.env.dev
/home/user/monorepo/.env
These root configurations are equivalent:
"root": "../../"
"root": "../../.env"
"root": "/home/user/monorepo"
"root": "/home/user/monorepo/.env"
Usage in Monorepos
Nx
@ngx-env/builder supports Nx projects with multiple applications.
Currently the schematics only supports Angular CLI projects, so you need to install the package and uppdate project.json
.
npm add -D @ngx-env/builder
Replace every occurence of @angular-devkit/build-angular
with @ngx-env/builder
in project.json
file.
When you have multiple applications in your Nx workspace, you can define a common .env.*
files in the root of your workspace and override it in each application or any other subdirectory below the root. See Cascading Environment Variables for more details.
Explore @ngx-env/builder usage in a sample Nx workspace here.
Good Practices
Declare your environment variables in the generated .env.d.ts
file
declare namespace NodeJS {
export interface ProcessEnv {
NG_APP_ENV: string;
NG_APP_BASE_URL: string;
NG_APP_VERSION: string;
}
}
Use process.env
inside environment.ts
files
We recommend to consume environment variables in Angular environment files, for two reasons:
-
To avoid using process.env
in your business code.
If one day you decide that a variable is no longer linked to the environment but rather to an Angular configuration, you would only have to modify the environment files.
-
To be ready for the day when Angular would implement the consumption of environment variables directly in the CLI.
If the syntax proposed by Angular CLI to access the environment variables turns out to be different, you would only have to modify the environment files.
Example:
environment.ts
export const environment = {
production: false,
baseUrl: process.env.NG_APP.BASE_URL,
version: process.env.NG_APP_VERSION,
};
footer.component.ts
import { environment } from "src/environments/environment";
@Injectable()
export class SomeService {
version = environment.version;
baseUrl = environment.baseUrl;
}
Usage with Docker
@ngx-env/builder can be used with Docker to provide environment-specific configuration during the build and deployment of an Angular application.
The Dockerfile below will build an Angular application with the NGX_API_URL
environment variable set to the value of the NGX_API_URL
build argument.
FROM node:18
# Get the arguments from the command line
ARG NGX_API_URL
# Set the environment variables
ENV NGX_API_URL=$NGX_API_URL
################### Build ans Serve the application ######################
# You can replace this part with your own build process
WORKDIR /app
RUN npx -y @angular/cli@15 new ng-app --defaults
WORKDIR /app/ng-app
# In your own project, you would rather have the dependencies in the package.json file
RUN npx ng add @ngx-env/builder --skip-confirmation
RUN npm add @ngx-env/core
# In your own project, you would rather have the configuration in the angular.json file
RUN npx ng config projects.ng-app.architect.build.options.ngxEnv.prefix 'NGX_'
# Some sample code to show that the environment variable is available
RUN echo 'console.log("NGX_API_URL", process.env["NGX_API_URL"])' >>src/main.ts
RUN npm run build
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["npx", "http-server", "dist/ng-app", "-p", "8080"]
################################################################
Build and run the Docker image:
docker build --build-arg NGX_API_URL=http://staging.api.com -t ngx-env-demo .
docker run -p 8080:8080 ngx-env-demo
Known Issues
process
variable
If you have issues with the process
, you probably don't have the .env.d.ts
file in your source folder.
This file is created by running ng add @ngx-env/builder
.
Depending on your Angular version and your TS config, the file should either be defined this way:
declare var process: {
env: {
NG_APP_ENV: string;
[key: string]: any;
};
};
or this way (if your project references @types/node
):
declare namespace NodeJS {
export interface ProcessEnv {
readonly NG_APP_ENV: string;
}
}
Property comes from an index signature
If you prefer using process.env.NGX_SOME_VARIABLE instead of process.env['NGX_SOME_VARIABLE'], you can update the following line in your tsconfig.json
file:
-"noPropertyAccessFromIndexSignature": true,
+"noPropertyAccessFromIndexSignature": false,
How It Works?
I wrote an article on InDepth.dev explaining how it works.
Credits
License
MIT © Chihab Otmani