codewithmosh NodeJS course asks me a few times to change my NODE ENV - doesn t work on windows

Question

I'm currently learning "code with moshNodeJs "'s course, and I'm having trouble updating my NODE ENV environment variable... Every time I update it in CMD or Windows PowerShell, it appears to work, but nothing happens in the course's NodeJS Express Demo build. What I'm trying to figure out is how do you set up your ENV VARs.

The code is as follows:

const app = express();
const Joi = require('joi');
const helmet = require('helmet');
const morgan = require('morgan');
const config = require('config');
const dotenv = require('dotenv')
dotenv.config()

const logger = require('./logger');

console.log(`NODE_ENV: ${process.env.NODE_ENV}`);
console.log(`app ${app.get('env')}`);

app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }))
app.use(express.static('public'));
app.use(helmet());

if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
    console.log('morgan is Enabled');
    app.use(morgan('tiny'));
}```

Answer 1

The solution you require is straightforward.

You must first install Dotenv. "npm install dotenv" can be used to accomplish this.

Second, in the root directory of your project, create a file called ".env" (same directory as your package.json file)

Third, add the following line to the.env file (without the quotes): "NODE ENV = development"

There are no semi-colons in this sentence.

Here's an example of how I utilise it in one of my projects. Note that in the newest version of Node, I have modules enabled, so my import statements may differ from what you're used to

import express from "express";
import colors from "colors";
import dotenv from "dotenv";
import morgan from "morgan";
import connectDB from "./config/db.js";
import { notFound, errorHandler } from "./middleware/errorMiddleware.js";

dotenv.config();

// Connect Database
connectDB();

const app = express();

// Middleware
// Only run Morgan in development mode
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === "development") {
    app.use(morgan("dev"));
}
app.use(express.json());

// Routes
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
    res.send("API is online...");
});

// Error and 404 handling Middleware
app.use(notFound);
app.use(errorHandler);

// Start server
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5000;
app.listen(PORT, console.log(`Server is running on port ${PORT}`.green.bold));