How to expose Openshift enviroment variables on a json - json

Question

I have installed node-push-server. The configuration is loaded from a json like this:
{
"webPort": 8000,
"mongodbUrl": "mongodb://username:password#localhost/database",
"gcm": {
"apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
},
"apn": {
"connection": {
"gateway": "gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com",
"cert": "/path/to/cert.pem",
"key": "/path/to/key.pem"
},
"feedback": {
"address": "feedback.sandbox.push.apple.com",
"cert": "/path/to/cert.pem",
"key": "/path/to/key.pem",
"interval": 43200,
"batchFeedback": true
}
}
}
How can I set the enviroment variables for my application in this json file?

Answer 1

I don't think it's possible. You should be able to change all these settings in the code though. For example in node you can do: process.env.OPENSHIFT_VARIABLENAME to read an environment variable.
Example for MongoDB connection string from docs:
//provide a sensible default for local development
mongodb_connection_string = 'mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/' + db_name;
//take advantage of openshift env vars when available:
if(process.env.OPENSHIFT_MONGODB_DB_URL){
mongodb_connection_string = process.env.OPENSHIFT_MONGODB_DB_URL + db_name;
}
As an alternative, there is a quick and easy deployable gear called AeroGear Push that might serve your needs.

Answer 2

Config files can be awkward because including them in your source repo isn't always a good move.
OpenShift deployments are mostly git push-driven, so there are several options for helping you correctly resolve your configs on the server.
Configuring your service using ENV vars is the most common approach, but since this one requires a flat file, you'll need to find a way to update the file with the correct values.
If you know what keys and values are needed, you should be able to write a script that updates the example json, or merges two json objects to produce a flat config file including the strings node-pushserver will expect.
It looks like mongodbUrl, webPort, (and domain?) would need to be populated with OpenShift-provided values (when available). config-multipaas might be able to help with that.
I would probably implement the config bootstrapping / merging work as a build step, allowing you to prep the config file and start node-pushserver in it's usual way