JSON to .env

Automate converting JSON configurations to environment variables when working with AWS, Azure App Service or any other JSON-based configuration systems. This command line utility simplifies the process, making it easy to keep your local development environment in sync with your remote system configuration.

Motivation

When working with Azure App Service, managing application settings and configuration can be a bit challenging, especially when transitioning between local development and the cloud. Azure CLI provides a convenient way to list app settings in JSON format:

az webapp config appsettings list --name your-app-name --resource-group your-resource-group --output json > local-settings.json

However, this JSON format isn't directly compatible with the traditional .env file format that many development environments rely on. Manually converting these JSON configurations can be a tedious and error-prone task, resulting in potential inconsistencies between your local and cloud configurations.

The JSON to .env simplifies this process by allowing you to convert JSON configuration files into .env format with ease.

Usage

Installation

Install the converter globally using npm:

npm install -g @drrobotnik/jsontoenv

Conversion

Use the utility to convert JSON configuration to environment variables:

npx @drrobotnik/jsontoenv ./config.json --flatten

This command reads the config.json file and converts it to a .env file in .env format. The --flatten flag allows you to choose whether to flatten nested properties into environment variables or preserve them as JSON strings.

Dry Run

If you want to preview the generated content without creating a file, use the --dryrun flag:

npx @drrobotnik/jsontoenv ./config.json --flatten --dryrun

Example

Consider a scenario where you have an Azure App Service with a list of app settings in JSON format:

{
  "api_key": "myApiKey",
  "database": {
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": 5432
  }
}

You can choose to preserve nested output:

npx @drrobotnik/jsontoenv ./config.json --dryrun

API_KEY=myApiKey
DATABASE={"host":"localhost","port":5432}

Or you can flatten the values

npx @drrobotnik/jsontoenv ./config.json --flatten --dryrun

The JSON to .env can convert this JSON to .env format:

API_KEY=myApiKey
DATABASE_HOST=localhost
DATABASE_PORT=5432

Contribute

If you'd like to contribute to this open-source project, feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests on the GitHub repository.

License

This utility is open-source and distributed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more information.