How to access environment variables in node js app using IBM Cloud Toolchain?

Question

For a node Cloud Foundry app which is hosted on IBM Cloud and which uses Watson Assistant, we have built a Pipeline within a Toolchain in IBM Cloud. We are having trouble in the deploy stage of the toolchain - receiving an authentication error when calling the Assistant API using our environment variables.

When we run the app locally using the same environment variables, everything works. We can see that the environment variables defined in the Setup Stage of the Toolchain are accessible in the Deploy Stage (we can print them in the Deploy Stage logs using cf env, and the environment variables are set and visible in the IBM Cloud App Runtime UI), but then the node runtime of the app in the deploy stage cannot access them (they are undefined, causing the error in the logs seen below).

In the app files (node js), we are using process.env.VARIABLE_NAME to access the environment properties.

If we manually set the environment variables in the IBM Cloud App – and then cf push from our local terminal, then the app also works fine.

Please see below the bash scripts used in the setup and deploy phase. The build phase runs successfully.

Error in logs:

[APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR Error: Insufficient credentials provided in constructor argument. Refer to the documentation for the required parameters. Common examples are username/password and iam_access_token.
[APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR     at AssistantV2.BaseService.initCredentials (/home/vcap/app/node_modules/ibm-cloud-sdk-core/lib/base_service.ts:317:15)
[APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR     at AssistantV2.BaseService (/home/vcap/app/node_modules/ibm-cloud-sdk-core/lib/base_service.ts:153:27)
[APP/PROC/WEB/0] ERR     at new AssistantV2 (/home/vcap/app/node_modules/ibm-watson/assistant/v2.ts:51:5)

Setup stage script: (the environment properties are defined as secure properties in this stage.)

#!/bin/bash
cf push "${CF_APP}"

# Set environment variables that will be used after build the app
cf set-env "${CF_APP}" WATSON_ASSISTANT_APIKEY "${WATSON_ASSISTANT_APIKEY}"
cf set-env "${CF_APP}" WATSON_ASSISTANT_WORKSPACE "${WATSON_ASSISTANT_WORKSPACE}"
cf set-env "${CF_APP}" WATSON_ASSISTANT_ASSISTANT_ID "${WATSON_ASSISTANT_ASSISTANT_ID}"

# Restage app to get the new credentials availables
cf restage "${CF_APP}"

Deploy stage script: (more or less equivalent to cf push)

#!/bin/bash

# Push app
if ! cf app $CF_APP; then  
  cf push $CF_APP
  echo "no existing app, so doing fresh push"
else
  OLD_CF_APP=${CF_APP}-OLD-$(date +"%s")
  rollback() {
    set +e  
    if cf app $OLD_CF_APP; then
      cf logs $CF_APP --recent
      cf delete $CF_APP -f
      cf rename $OLD_CF_APP $CF_APP
    fi
    exit 1
  }
  set -e
  trap rollback ERR
  cf rename $CF_APP $OLD_CF_APP
  cf push $CF_APP
  cf delete $OLD_CF_APP -f
fi
# Export app name and URL for use in later Pipeline jobs
export CF_APP_NAME="$CF_APP"
export APP_URL=http://$(cf app $CF_APP_NAME | grep -e urls: -e routes: | awk '{print $2}')
# View logs
#cf logs "${CF_APP}" --recent

cristian.nieto.dev cristian.nieto.dev · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-10T15:44:37

I had deployed CloudFoundry apps on IBMCloud that use WatsonAssistant and I get the variables of this shape.

process.env.CONVERSATION_WORKSPACE || 'Use this when the variable is not defined(XXXX-XXXX)'

process.env.CONVERSATION_ASSISTANT || 'XXXX-XXXX-XXXXX-XXXX'

You can use also

.env file for local environment

On IBMCloud I set the variable of this shape.

How to access environment variables in node js app using IBM Cloud Toolchain?

1 Answers