JSON stored in AWS EB environment variables is retrieved without quotes

Question

I'm running a node.js EB container and trying to store JSON inside an Environment Variable. The JSON is stored correctly, but when retrieving it via process.env.MYVARIABLE it is returned with all the double quotes stripped.

E.g. MYVARIABLE looks like this:

{ "prop": "value" }

when I retrieve it via process.env.MYVARIABLE its value is actualy { prop: value} which isn't valid JSON. I've tried to escape the quotes with '\' ie { \"prop\": \"value\" } that just adds more weird behavior where the string comes back as {\ \"prop\\":\ \"value\\" }. I've also tried wrapping the whole thing in single quotes e.g. '{ "prop": "value" }', but it seems to strip those out too.

Anyone know how to store JSON in environment variables?

EDIT: some more info, it would appear that certain characters are being doubly escaped when you set an environment variable. E.g. if I wrap the object in single quotes. the value when I fetch it using the sdk, becomes:

\'{ "prop": "value"}\'

Also if I leave the quotes out, backslashes get escaped so if the object looks like {"url": "http://..."} the result when I query via the sdk is {"url": "http:\\/\\/..."}

Not only is it mangling the text, it's also rearranging the JSON properties, so properties are appearing in a different order than what I set them to.

UPDATE

So I would say this seems to be a bug in AWS based on the fact that it seems to be mangling the values that are submitted. This happens whether I use the node.js sdk or the web console. As a workaround I've taken to replacing double quotes with single quotes on the json object during deployment and then back again in the application.

Answer 1

Use base64 encoding

An important string is being auto-magically mangled. We don't know the internals of EB, but we can guess it is parsing JSON. So don't store JSON, store the base64-encoded JSON:

a = `{ "public": { "s3path": "https://d2v4p3rms9rvi3.cloudfront.net" } }`
x = btoa(a) // store this as B_MYVAR
// "eyAicHVibGljIjogeyAiczNwYXRoIjogImh0dHBzOi8vZDJ2NHAzcm1zOXJ2aTMuY2xvdWRmcm9udC5uZXQiIH0gfQ=="


settings = JSON.parse(atob(process.env.B_MYVAR))
settings.public.s3path
// "https://d2v4p3rms9rvi3.cloudfront.net"
// Or even:

process.env.MYVAR = atob(process.env.B_MYVAR)
// Sets MYVAR at runtime, hopefully soon enough for your purposes

Since this is JS, there are caveats about UTF8 and node/browser support, but I think atob and btoa are common. Docs.