Add Vercel Environment Variable that points to JSON file

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05-10-2024

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Connecting Vercel to Your Data: Using Environment Variables to Access JSON Files

Vercel is a popular platform for deploying static websites and serverless functions. But what if your website needs to access data stored in a JSON file? This is where environment variables come in. By storing the path to your JSON file in a Vercel environment variable, you can easily access and dynamically use that data within your application.

The Scenario:

Imagine you have a website that displays information about your team members. Each member's details are stored in a team.json file in the root directory of your Vercel project. You want to display this information dynamically on your website using JavaScript.

// index.js 
const teamData = require('./team.json');

// ...use teamData to render the website...

While this code works locally, deploying to Vercel will result in an error as Vercel does not serve static files directly. You need a way to access the team.json file from your deployed application.

The Solution: Using Environment Variables

Vercel allows you to store secrets and configuration data in environment variables. We can use this to store the path to our team.json file.

1. Create the environment variable:

   • Navigate to your project's settings on Vercel.
   • Under "Environment Variables", click "Add a variable".
   • Name the variable TEAM_JSON_PATH and set its value to ./team.json.

2. Access the environment variable in your code:

   • Update your index.js file to use the environment variable:

// index.js
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const TEAM_JSON_PATH = process.env.TEAM_JSON_PATH; // Access environment variable
const teamData = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.resolve(__dirname, TEAM_JSON_PATH)));

// ...use teamData to render the website...

Explanation:

• process.env.TEAM_JSON_PATH: Accesses the TEAM_JSON_PATH environment variable defined on Vercel.
• fs and path modules: Used to read the file and resolve the correct path relative to the current script.
• JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.resolve(__dirname, TEAM_JSON_PATH))): Reads the content of the team.json file and parses it as JSON, providing the data you need.

Why Use Environment Variables?

• Security: Environment variables are not stored in your code, ensuring your data remains secure.
• Flexibility: You can easily update the path to your JSON file without needing to redeploy your application.
• Scalability: You can manage multiple configurations using different environment variables for different deployments (e.g., for development, staging, and production).

Further Enhancements

• Data Fetching: Instead of reading the entire JSON file directly, you can use an API to fetch the data dynamically, reducing the need for frequent re-deploys.
• File Structure: Consider moving your JSON file to a dedicated data folder for better organization.

By leveraging Vercel environment variables, you can access and use external data from your JSON files in your Vercel applications, giving you more flexibility and control over your dynamic content.