configvention

nodejs-configvention

A node.js configuration convention with a minimal readonly interface. Reads configuration values from the environment, arguments, override configuration file, defaults configuration file.

Available from npm as configvention.

Usage

import configuration from "configvention";

const something = configuration.get("something");

Installation

npm install --save configvention@latest

Convention

This is the order settings are read for the example node application my-app.js. configuration.get("something") will look for something in this order. When the the first something is found, the search is stopped and the value is returned.

1. In arguments parsed from the command line, like node my-app.js --something 1234.
2. In the environment variables, for something.
3. In the JSON object from the file my-app.js.config.json, where my-app.js is the filename of your node app.
4. In the JSON object from the file my-app.js.defaults.config.json, where my-app.js is the filename of your node app.

If something can't be found, then it returns undefined.

• my-app.js.config.json contains settings that apply to the current folder. This file should not be checked in to your version control system (git/hg/svn), but replaced by whoever is running the node app. It's different for, for example, developers on their own machines and production servers.
• my-app.js.defaults.config.json contains sane defaults and is checked in to version control system.

Neither my-app.js.config.json nor my-app.js.defaults.config.json are required, but you probably would like to have at least my-app.js.defaults.config.json.

Debugging

To get some insight on files loaded, configuration values read etcetera, enable debugging from the command line.

DEBUG='configvention:*' node my-app.js

Versions

For details, see git commits, git tags and published npm versions.

• Configvention >= v3.0.0:
  • ECMAScript Module (ESM) package.
  • For use with Node.js v16 or later.
• Configvention <= v2.0.0:
  • CommonJS (CJS) legacy package.
  • For use with all (?) Node.js versions.

Alternatives

Some alternatives found glancing over npm modules dependent on nconf.

• nconfs: node.js convention/library for multiple nconf settings.
• reconf: Recursive configuration file management with defaults and overrides for nconf.

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Copyright © 2012, 2016, 2021, 2023, Joel Purra. All rights reserved.

When using nodejs-configvention, comply to at least one of the three available licenses: MIT, BSD-2-Clause, GPL-3.0-or-later. Please see the LICENSE files for details.