nmConfig

Handy and strongly opinionated config helper on top of reconfig.

So what about it

Here in Namshi we like our configuration: incremental, overridable, and defined in a compact way.

As well as we like to don't go nuts when we clone a project repo for the 1st time.

This is why we came up with tools like reconfig and file-ensure. With nmConfig we put all this things together in a convenient lib that turns all of this in a matter of a require() instruction.

What does it do

• Automatically creates a config/ directory and the needed files if they are not present:

config/
     |- base.yml
     |- dev.example.yml
     |- staging.yml
     |- live.yml

You can override the default files list by adding defaultFiles list to your app's package.json:

{
  ...
  "scripts": {...},
  "nmConfig": {
    "defaultFiles": [
      "base",
      "development.dist",
      "staging",
      "production"
    ]
  },
  "dependencies": {...}
}

When you pass your own file names, make sure to pass them as baseFiles property in your options object (check below).

• Compiles your config files, figures out your environment and applies the needed merging on the base.yml one:

#base.yml
characters:
  yoda: jedi
  anakin: jedi
  obiWan: jedi

#dev.yml
characters:
  anakin: sith

will result in:

{
  characters: {
    yoda: 'jedi',
    anakin: 'sith',
    obiWan: 'jedi'
  }
}

You can eventually define configuration paths in your app's package.json too, using your app's name as key, and they'll be added to the final configuration:

// Put something like this in your package.json

{
  "name": "myConfigurableApp",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "description": "I can configure apps",
  "myConfigurableApp": {
    "characters": {
      "benSolo": "sith"
    }
  }

// and you'll obtain:

{
  characters: {
    yoda: 'jedi',
    anakin: 'sith',
    obiWan: 'jedi',
    benSolo: 'sith'
  }
}

• returns you a reconfig instance:

console.log(config.get('characters.anakin'));

// ==> 'sith'

• Figures out a reconfig's env overrider prefix from your package.json:

//pacakage.json
{
  "name": "myApp",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "this is my app, there are many like it, but this one is mine!"
// [...]
}

will yield a MYAPP_CONFIG env prefix for reconfig (check this section on reconfig's doc for more infos on what this does)

• Ensure you've a dev.yml on your dev machine, or eventually creates one from dev.example.yml

Options Params

Options parameters:

• baseFiles: A list of files creating the base configuration before applying the environment specific config. These files will be merged in order, the env file will be the last applied.

• separator: The separator Reconfig will use for console vars overlays.

• projectName: Defines Your project's name. If none is given, the project's name will be inferred form your package.json "name" value. All spaces will be removed.

• prefix: The prefix that Reconfig will use while grabbing console variable and applying overlays.

• ensure: Tells to nmConfig to check for the existence of <filename>.yml file. If a <fileName>.example.yml is found, it will be used to produce the ensured file.

• env: Forced value for the environment:

  • by default nmConfig will read you env form:
    • PROJECTNAME_ENV
    • NODE_ENV
    • or default to "dev"

NOTE: If you want to output the value of your system configuration on loading your config then you can set an option in your environment config file with a value of verboseConfig: true at the top level. If this is set then the config will be printed to STDOUT.

Installation

Install this library via NPM:

npm install node-nmconfig

Usage

var config = require('node-nmconfig')();

// or

var config = require('node-nmconfig')({ /* options */ });

If you need it on the client side we highly recommend browserify.

Tests

This library is a little convenience wrapper on top of extensively tested projects, so for once we can be a little bit lazy and skip them ;)
We do like tests tho, so if you feel giving us a hand we'll be more than happy to see some PR love on this side :D