How do I add API keys and other secure stuff to heroku? - github

Question

I read somewhere but cannot seem to find where to add secret keys into Heroku without needing to put it into the source code git repository?
I guess that helps keep it secure when I am pushing into github.
How do I do that and does that make sense to do?

Answer 1

http://docs.heroku.com/config-vars
Then add the development keys to an initializer:
#config/initializers/keys.rb
development:
SOME_KEY = 'abc123' #not your production key
testing:
SOME_KEY = 'abc123' #not your production key
#production:
#blank
Optionally add the initializer to .gitignore. Not required as your production key isn't stored.

Answer 2

As Mark has suggested, the best way would be Heroku environment vars. you can read about them here:
To do so, you need to use Heroku CLI which you need to download and install it based on your operating system. Don't forget to set up Heroku CLI with these 3 steps:
$ heroku login
$ cd ~/myapp
$ heroku create (your Heroku app name)
now it's time to set up config variable. The command is:
$ heroku config:set <ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE>=<VALUE>
for example I'm gonna save my API key here as a config var:
$ heroku config:set DARKSKY_API_KEY=8e11111111162218d22222222229cc22222c6
and now it's time to use it in you server side code. For Nodejs you can access them by:
process.env.DARKSKY_API_KEY
like so:
const weatherURL =`https://api.darksky.net/forecast/${process.env.DARKSKY_API_KEY}/${latitude},${longitude}?units=si`;
For other languages like Ruby, Java, ... check this link.
you can view your config vars by typing:
$ heroku config
or removing a config var:
$ heroku config:unset DARKSKY_API_KEY
Also, I was thinking about a .env file for heroku config vars that we can edit them locally and then upload them on heroku. Finally, I come up with this solution.
To save the cofig vars locally from heroku and be able to change them locally in a file, later down the road when it's needed, we can run:
$ heroku config | sed 's/: */=/g; /^=/d' >> HEROKU_CONFIG_ENV.env
which HEROKU_CONFIG_ENV.env is just a file name and you can name whatever you like.This script is gonna save HEROKU_CONFIG_ENV.env file on the root of your project.
After modifying the keys, it's the time to upload them on Heroku and set heroku config vars by running:
$ heroku config:set $(cat HEROKU_CONFIG_ENV.env | sed '/^$/d; /#[[:print:]]*$/d')
that's it.