Summary
- Using habitat variables in Node.js projects is highly recommended for security, portability, and maintainability.
- Environment variables store sensitive data like API keys, database credentials, and runtime settings externally to the application code.
- There are several ways to set and access these variables: through the shell, a.env file, or platform-specific configurations like Heroku.
- Advantages of using habitat variables include scalability, ease of changing configuration, and adherence to 12-factor app methodology.
- Best practices include descriptive variable names, secrecy of .env files, validation, and providing defaults or error messages when necessary.
- Ultimately, clean environment variable management leads to safer code and smoother development workflows.
By sophia
Original Article