Runtime-env-cra

A runtime environment handler for React.js apps that have been bootstraped using create-react-app.

Usage
Requirements
CLI Options
Using in a Typescript app
Usage in Docker
Examples
Test Coverage
Contributors

Usage

The runtime-env-cra package was meant to be used in Docker or VM based environments, where you have full control over how your application will start. Sadly, runtime-env-cra can not be used if you are using S3 or another static file serving solution.

Supported node.js versions due to yargs is 12 or greater
Installation

$ npm install runtime-env-cra

Add the following to public/index.html inside the <head> tag:

<!-- Runtime environment variables -->
<script src="https://github.com/kHRISl33t/runtime-env-cra/raw/master/%PUBLIC_URL%/runtime-env.js"></script>

Modify your start script to the following in your package.json:

...
"scripts": {
  "start": "NODE_ENV=development runtime-env-cra --config-name=./public/runtime-env.js && react-scripts start",
  ...
}
...

If you are on windows, you need to use cross-env

"scripts": {
  "start": "cross-env NODE_ENV=development runtime-env-cra --config-name=./public/runtime-env.js && react-scripts start",
  ...
}

The script parses everything based on your .env file and adds it to window.__RUNTIME_CONFIG__. If you pass NODE_ENV=development for the script, it will use the values from your .env, but if you provide anything else than development or nothing for NODE_ENV it will parse environment variables from process.env. This way you can dynamically set your environment variables in production/staging environments without the need to rebuild your project.

Requirements

This script uses your .env file by default to parse the environment variables to window.__RUNTIME_CONFIG__, so be sure to have one in your project! After modifying the start script and public/index.html described in the section above, you should be good to go!

CLI options

Display the help section.

$ runtime-env-cra --help | -h

Relative path and file name that will be generated. Default is ./runtime-env.js

$ runtime-env-cra --config-name | -cn

Relative path and name of your env file. Default is ./.env

$ runtime-env-cra --env-file | -ef

Typescript usage

Create ./src/types/globals.ts file and pase the following (modify the __RUNTIME_CONFIG__ properties to match your environment):

export {};

declare global {
  interface Window {
    __RUNTIME_CONFIG__: {
      API_URL: string;
      NODE_ENV: string;
    };
  }
}

Add "include": ["src/types"] to your tsconfig.json.

{
  "compilerOptions": { ... },
  "include": ["src/types"]
}

Usage in Docker

You must have an example of your env layout. A project usually have a .env.example which represents that and will not contain any sensitive information. Inside a docker container we can lean on the .env.example. Make sure your .env.example is always up to date!

Using in an alpine based container

# copy .env.example as .env to the container
COPY .env.example .env

# install nodejs & npm
RUN apk add --update nodejs
RUN apk add --update npm

# install runtime-env-cra package
RUN npm i -g runtime-env-cra

# start the app with the following CMD
CMD ["/bin/sh", "-c", "runtime-env-cra && nginx -g \"daemon off;\""]

Examples

Create react app with typescript template, including Dockerfile and docker-compose. (source)
Create react app without typescript, including Dockerfile and docker-compose. (source)

Test coverage

-------------------|---------|----------|---------|---------|-------------------
File               | % Stmts | % Branch | % Funcs | % Lines | Uncovered Line #s
-------------------|---------|----------|---------|---------|-------------------
All files          |     100 |      100 |     100 |     100 |
 generateConfig.js |     100 |      100 |     100 |     100 |
 utils.js          |     100 |      100 |     100 |     100 |
-------------------|---------|----------|---------|---------|-------------------
Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       5 passed, 5 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        1.751 s