using an enviroment variable for local sequelize configuration

Question

I'm looking to use an environment variable inside of the config.json file of my project using sequelize. I'm using dotenv to set environment variables locally. My config.json file looks like this

{   "development": {     "username": process.env.DB_USER,     "password": process.env.DB_PASS,     "database": process.env.DB_DATABASE,     "host": process.env.DB_HOST,     "dialect": "mysql"   },   "test": {     "username": "root",     "password": null,     "database": "database_test",     "host": "127.0.0.1",     "dialect": "mysql"   },   "production": {     "use_env_variable": "JAWSDB_URL",     "dialect": "mysql"   } } 

The issue I'm having is that I can't use variables inside the config.json file. It looks like for production I can use the "use_env_varable" key and use the env variable for my connection string. So I guess I either need a way to figure out the combined connection string for my local mysql db or a way to use variables inside the config.json. Any solutions?

Answer 1

you should change config.json file to a config.js module and make sure to require the dotenv at the very top.

require('dotenv').config(); // this is important! module.exports = { "development": {     "username": process.env.DB_USERNAME,     "password": process.env.DB_PASSWORD,     "database": process.env.DB_DATABASE,     "host": process.env.DB_HOST,     "dialect": "mysql" }, "test": {     "username": "root",     "password": null,     "database": "database_test",     "host": "127.0.0.1",     "dialect": "mysql" }, "production": {     "username": "root",     "password": null,     "database": "database_production",     "host": "127.0.0.1",     "dialect": "mysql" } }; 

NOTE: update your .sequelizerc file to match the new config file.

"config": path.resolve('./config', 'config.js'), 

Answer 2

I worked on this for quite a bit. I do not know why Sequelize does not use production when it is literally in the environment if you run heroku run bash. I was able to get it working by modifying the Sequelize object depending on the JAWSDB_URL, not the NODE_ENV.

require("dotenv").config(); const express = require("express") const app = express(); let seq;  //express app configuration  if (process.env.JAWSDB_URL) {     console.log("There is a JAWS DB URL")     seq = new Sequelize(process.env.JAWSDB_URL) } else {     seq = require("./models").sequelize } seq.sync().then(() => {   app.listen(PORT, () => console.log('server started on port ' + PORT)); })