How to set environment variables on heroku for nodes app and connect to the postgresql database?

javascript2016 picture javascript2016 · Oct 19, 2016 · Viewed 31.3k times · Source

I know there are same/similar questions on stack overflow and I have read the documentation too-I just still don't understand ANYTHING- how to set those variables and WHERE!! to set them.

My env/production.js file:

module.exports = {
    "DATABASE_URI": process.env.DATABASE_URI,
    "SESSION_SECRET": process.env.SESSION_SECRET,
    "TWITTER": {
       "consumerKey": process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY,
       "consumerSecret": process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET,
       "callbackUrl": process.env.TWITTER_CALLBACK
    },
    "FACEBOOK": {
        "clientID": process.env.FACEBOOK_APP_ID,
        "clientSecret": process.env.FACEBOOK_CLIENT_SECRET,
        "callbackURL": process.env.FACEBOOK_CALLBACK_URL
    },
    "GOOGLE": {
        "clientID": process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID,
        "clientSecret": process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET,
        "callbackURL": process.env.GOOGLE_CALLBACK_URL
    },
    "LOGGING": true
};

In my env/development.js file I set the variables (linked to my postgres/localhost/xxx). Do I need to set them in heroku for all (Google, Facebook etc.) or just for the database, since I had to create one with heroku? Do I leave the link to my local database in my development file and link to the heroku database separately?

I don't even know if I am suppose to do it from my command line?! In the documentation it says: heroku config:get CONFIG-VAR-NAME -s >> .env so would it be heroku config:get CONFIG-NAME OF MY HEROKU DATABASE -s >> .env?

I'm deploying for the first time and so confused! Help :)

Answer

dark_ruby picture dark_ruby · Oct 19, 2016

According to documentation you could use heroku CLI

$ heroku config:set DATABASE_URI=database_uri_here
$ heroku config:set SESSION_SECRET=session_secret
... and so on for each variable, 

or you could use UI https://dashboard-classic.heroku.com/apps/{your-app-name}/settings and provide same variables via web interface, as I mention in above comment

NODE_ENV=production is not treated specially by heroku, so you do need to provide it as well as any other env variable

ps: strictly speaking this question doesnt really belong in SO, as it's unrelated to programming. Maybe it need to be moved to SU