Invalid NODE_ENV message improvement about envalid HOT 5 CLOSED

Hi @Rolandisimo, what would you suggest as an improved error message here?

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I'm running into the same issue. How can you specify valid choices for non-standard environments? As an example I need to tell it jesttest is a valid NODE_ENV

from envalid.

@cmbirk here you can see the default values for NODE_ENV https://github.com/af/envalid#envalidcleanenvenvironment-validators-options

From the source code:

// If validation for NODE_ENV isn't specified, use the default validation:
if (!varKeys.includes('NODE_ENV')) {
  defaultNodeEnv = validateVar({
    name: 'NODE_ENV',
    spec: str({ choices: ['development', 'test', 'production'] }),
    rawValue: env.NODE_ENV || 'production'
  })
}

Because in my project we have a qa environment, I had to specify it in the choices for some of the related test to work.
My workaround in Typescript:

// declarations.d.ts
declare type NODE_ENVIRONMENTS = "development" | "production" | "qa" | "test";

// env_variables.ts
NODE_ENV: str({
  choices: ["qa", "production", "development", "test"] as NODE_ENVIRONMENTS[],
  default: "development" as NODE_ENVIRONMENTS,
}),

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@af I wasn't sure about a good approach without refactoring the code too much. So, as an intermediate step I think it's not unreasonable to add a check for the specific NODE_ENV key inside validateVar function. Afterwards a message specifying that the developer might need to specify choices for NODE_ENV when calling cleanEnv.

What do you think?

from envalid.

As of v7.0.0-beta.1, this library no longer ships a default NODE_ENV validator, so you can specify your own with whichever choices you wish. Here's a test case with an example: https://github.com/af/envalid/blob/master/tests/basics.test.ts#L138

This doesn't change the messaging of course, but if I understand correctly, if fixes the root issue here. If you think the error messages could use improvement still, please open up another PR or issue for that

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