Basic

Using a .env file is a great practice for managing environment variables in a Node.js project.

import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';

// Load environment variables from .env file
dotenv.config();

// usage
process.env.IMGBB_API_KEY

Process

Now, let’s go through the changes and additional steps to set up the .env file:

1. First, install the dotenv package:

   npm install dotenv @types/dotenv
   

2. Create a .env file in the root of your project with the following content:

   IMGBB_API_KEY=your_actual_api_key_here
   MARKDOWN_DIRECTORY=./path/to/your/markdown/files
   

3. In the script, we’ve made the following changes:

   • Imported the dotenv package: import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
   • Added dotenv.config(); to load the environment variables.
   • Replaced the hardcoded API key with process.env.IMGBB_API_KEY.
   • Added error handling if the API key is not set.
   • Used process.env.MARKDOWN_DIRECTORY for the directory path, with a fallback.

4. Make sure to add .env to your .gitignore file to prevent committing sensitive information:

   echo ".env" >> .gitignore