@bam.tech/react-native-config

Expose config variables to React Native apps

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import bamTechReactNativeConfig from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@bam.tech/react-native-config';
</script>

README

React Native Config

Module to expose config variables to your javascript code in React Native, supporting both iOS and Android.

Bring some 12 factor love to your mobile apps!

Forked from luggit's repo


Why a fork

echo ".env.staging" > ${SRCROOT}/envfile
ENVFILE=.env.staging ${SRCROOT}/../node_modules/react-native-config/ios/ReactNativeConfig/BuildXCConfig.rb ${SRCROOT}/.. ${SRCROOT}/react-native-config.xcconfig
  • We wanted to standardize the way to use the lib
  • We wanted control over such a critical lib (it uses env variables)

Setup (RN >= 0.60)

Install the package:

yarn add @bam.tech/react-native-config

Create a new file .env in the root of your React Native app:

API_URL=https://myapi.com
GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=abcdefgh

Keep in mind this module doesn't obfuscate or encrypt secrets for packaging, so do not store sensitive keys in .env. It's basically impossible to prevent users from reverse engineering mobile app secrets, so design your app (and APIs) with that in mind.

Setup Android

You'll also need to manually apply a plugin to your app, from android/app/build.gradle:

// 2nd line, add a new apply:
apply from: project(':@bam.tech_react-native-config').projectDir.getPath() + "/dotenv.gradle"

Required if dynamic app id

In android/app/build.gradle, if you use applicationIdSuffix or applicationId that is different from the package name indicated in AndroidManifest.xml in <manifest package="..."> tag, for example, to support different build variants: Add this in android/app/build.gradle

defaultConfig {
    ...
    resValue "string", "build_config_package", "YOUR_PACKAGE_NAME_IN_ANDROIDMANIFEST.XML"
}

Optional : Proguard

When Proguard is enabled (which it is by default for Android release builds), it can rename the BuildConfig Java class in the minification process and prevent React Native Config from referencing it. To avoid this, add an exception to android/app/proguard-rules.pro:

-keep class com.mypackage.BuildConfig { *; }

mypackage should match the package value in your app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml file.

Optional : Multi-environment support

The same environment variable can be used to assemble releases with a different config:

Define a map in build.gradle associating builds with env files. Do it before the apply from call, and use build cases in lowercase, like:

(Note: For React Native 0.60 or greater, autolinking is available)

(Note: For Windows, this module supports autolinking when used with react-native-windows@0.63 or later. For earlier versions you need to manually link the module.)

project.ext.envConfigFiles = [
    debug: ".env.development",
    release: ".env.production",
    anothercustombuild: ".env",
]
apply from: project(':@bam.tech_react-native-config').projectDir.getPath() + "/dotenv.gradle"

Also note that besides requiring lowercase, the matching is done with buildFlavor.startsWith, so a build named debugProd could match the debug case, above.

Setup iOS

cd ios
pod install
  • Right click on your project folder, create a "New file..."

  • Select the "Configuration Settings File" file type

  • Name it "react-native-config.xcconfig"

  • Remove this file from git (as it will be generated each build):

    # .gitignore
    
    # react-native-config codegen
    ios/react-native-config.xcconfig
    ios/envfile
    
  • In the Xcode menu, go to Product > Scheme > Edit Scheme

  • Expand the "Build" settings on left

  • Click "Pre-actions", and under the plus sign select "New Run Script Action"

  • Where it says "Type a script or drag a script file", type:

    echo ".env.development" > "${SRCROOT}/envfile"
    ENVFILE=.env.development ${SRCROOT}/../node_modules/@bam.tech/react-native-config/ios/ReactNativeConfig/BuildXCConfig.rb ${SRCROOT}/.. ${SRCROOT}/react-native-config.xcconfig
    
  • In your xcode project, in the Info tab ...

  • ... expand the Configurations section

  • For Debug and Release, on your project name row, select the react-native-config configuration option.

Optional : Multi-environment support

The basic idea in iOS is to have one scheme per environment file, so you can easily alternate between them. For each environment, use the following step (and change development by your env name - staging, test, production) :

  • In the Xcode menu, go to Product > Scheme > Edit Scheme
  • Duplicate Scheme
  • Expand the "Build" settings on left
  • Click "Pre-actions", and under the plus sign select "New Run Script Action"
  • Where it says "Type a script or drag a script file", type:
    echo ".env.development" > "${SRCROOT}/envfile"
    ENVFILE=.env.development ${SRCROOT}/../node_modules/@bam.tech/react-native-config/ios/ReactNativeConfig/BuildXCConfig.rb ${SRCROOT}/.. ${SRCROOT}/react-native-config.xcconfig
    

Usage

Javascript

import Config from "@bam.tech/react-native-config";

Config.API_URL; // 'https://myapi.com'
Config.GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY; // 'abcdefgh'

Android

Config variables set in .env are available to your Java classes via BuildConfig:

public HttpURLConnection getApiClient() {
    URL url = new URL(BuildConfig.API_URL);
    // ...
}

You can also read them from your Gradle configuration. All variables are strings, so you may need to cast them. For instance, in Gradle:

defaultConfig {
    applicationId project.env.get("APP_ID")
    versionCode project.env.get("VERSION_CODE").toInteger()
}

And use them to configure libraries in AndroidManifest.xml and others:

<meta-data
  android:name="com.google.android.geo.API_KEY"
  android:value="@string/GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY" />

iOS

Read variables declared in .env from your Obj-C classes like:

// import header
#import "ReactNativeConfig.h"

// then read individual keys like:
NSString *apiUrl = [ReactNativeConfig envFor:@"API_URL"];

// or just fetch the whole config
NSDictionary *config = [ReactNativeConfig env];

In Info.plist or project.pbxproj, read variables like so :

    <key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>
    <string>$(DISPLAY_NAME)</string>
  PROVISIONING_PROFILE_SPECIFIER = "$(PROVISIONING_PROFILE_SPECIFIER)";

Testing

Jest

For mocking the Config.FOO_BAR usage, create a mock at __mocks__/@bam.tech/react-native-config.js.

// __mocks__/react-native-config.js
export default {
  FOO_BAR: 'baz',
};

Example with exact values from .env

yarn add -D dotenv

// __mocks__/@bam.tech/react-native-config.js

import fs from "fs";
import path from "path";

import dotenv from "dotenv";

const buf = fs.readFileSync(path.resolve(__dirname, "..", "..", ".env"));
const config = dotenv.parse(buf);

export default config;

Credits

Forked from original repo created by Pedro Belo at Lugg.