I'm trying to hide my API Key for when I commit to github, and I've looked through the forum for guidance, especially the following post:
How do I hide API key in create-react-app?
I made the changes and restarted yarn. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong––I added an .env file to the root of my project (I named it process.env) and in the file I just put REACT_APP_API_KEY = 'my-secret-api-key'.
I'm thinking it might be the way I'm adding the key to my fetch in App.js, and I've tried multiple formats, including without using the template literal, but my project will still not compile.
Any help is much appreciated.
performSearch = (query = 'germany') => {
fetch(`https://api.unsplash.com/search/photos?query=${query}&client_id=${REACT_APP_API_KEY}`)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(responseData => {
this.setState({
results: responseData.results,
loading: false
});
})
.catch(error => {
console.log('Error fetching and parsing data', error);
});
}4 steps
npm install dotenv --save
Next add the following line to your app.
require('dotenv').config()
Then create a .env file at the root directory of your application and add the variables to it.
// contents of .env
REACT_APP_API_KEY = 'my-secret-api-key'
.env to your .gitignore file so that Git ignores it and it never ends up on GitHub.If you are using create-react-app then you only need step 3 and 4 but keep in mind variable needs to start with REACT_APP_ for it to work.
Reference: https://create-react-app.dev/docs/adding-custom-environment-variables/
NOTE - Need to restart application after adding variable in .env file.
Reference - https://medium.com/@thejasonfile/using-dotenv-package-to-create-environment-variables-33da4ac4ea8f
So I'm myself new to React and I found a way to do it.
This solution does not require any extra packages.
In the above docs they mention export in Shell and other options, the one I'll attempt to explain is using .env file
1.1 create Root/.env
#.env file
REACT_APP_SECRET_NAME=secretvaluehere123
Important notes it MUST start with REACT_APP_
1.2 Access ENV variable
#App.js file or the file you need to access ENV
<p>print env secret to HTML</p>
<pre>{process.env.REACT_APP_SECRET_NAME}</pre>
handleFetchData() { // access in API call
fetch(`https://awesome.api.io?api-key=${process.env.REACT_APP_SECRET_NAME}`)
.then((res) => res.json())
.then((data) => console.log(data))
}
1.3 Build Env Issue
So after I did step 1.1|2 it was not working, then I found the above issue/solution. React read/creates env when is built so you need to npm run start every time you modify the .env file so the variables get updated.
Today there is a simpler way to do that.
Just create the .env.local file in your root directory and set the variables there. In your case:
REACT_APP_API_KEY = 'my-secret-api-key'
Then you call it en your js file in that way:
process.env.REACT_APP_API_KEY
React supports environment variables since react-scripts@0.5.0 .You don't need external package to do that.
*note: I propose .env.local instead of .env because create-react-app add this file to gitignore when create the project.
Files priority:
npm start: .env.development.local, .env.development, .env.local, .env
npm run build: .env.production.local, .env.production, .env.local, .env
npm test: .env.test.local, .env.test, .env (note .env.local is missing)
More info: https://facebook.github.io/create-react-app/docs/adding-custom-environment-variables