How do I read environment variables from .env file for a React app from an S3 bucket?

Question

I created environment variables in a .env file for my React project.

I have added the .env in my .gitignore file.

How do I read these environment variables from my Amazon S3 bucket since my React app is hosted there?

e.g. process.env.REACT_APP_MY_VARIABLE

This is much more related to React as opposed to S3 bucket as it is no different from your local machine :) — Ermiya Eskandary, Oct 12 '21 at 08:51
Does this answer your question? [Adding an .env file to React Project](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49579028/adding-an-env-file-to-react-project) — Ermiya Eskandary, Oct 12 '21 at 08:54
I am able to read the variable from the .env on my local, I just want to know how to add the environment variables in S3 — Chris Okebata, Oct 12 '21 at 09:59
Just upload the .env file like you've uploaded the rest of your project? — Ermiya Eskandary, Oct 12 '21 at 10:01
I already added the .env file in the gitignore, so the content is not exposed in code — Chris Okebata, Oct 12 '21 at 10:12
It's not in git but it's still **there** on your machine - upload it manually or as part of your pipeline if it's a production env file — Ermiya Eskandary, Oct 12 '21 at 10:13

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 12 '21 at 05:29

0

1 - Make sure your .env file is in the root folder of your project. It should be something like:

REACT_APP_MY_VARIABLE = 'my-app-var'

2 - Build your project before sending it to S3 and install the dotenv dependency.

npm install dotenv --save

3 - Import the dotenv in your project.

answered Oct 12 '21 at 05:29

Juan Fontes

Since the .env file is not deployed to S3, how will process.env.REACT_APP_MY_VARIABLE get the value that I want? – Chris Okebata Oct 12 '21 at 09:39
Because of that I said to use dotenv, which allows your project to read .env files. require('dotenv/config'); console.log(process.env. REACT_APP_MY_VARIABLE) – Juan Fontes Oct 12 '21 at 10:50
my gitignore contains the build folder, which means the build folder is not deployed along with the code. How will dotenv know where to check for the variables in S3? – Chris Okebata Oct 12 '21 at 11:17
the build folder is exclude in git because the project is built in a deployment pipeline – Chris Okebata Oct 12 '21 at 11:36

1 Answers1