How to use DotEnv with Ionic v5?

I happen to be using Ionic-Vue but I imagine the situation is the same for all users. I have not been able to figure out, what is the build system under the hood when we use ionic serve? Is Webpack called? Is it handled entirely by Capacitor?

Problem:
I am unable to use dotenv as the fs module is not found, given this is not a “node” application, but a front end application. I believe dotenv is still frequently used is projects such as these but with a dev and production set of environment variables that are injected by webpack.

It looks as though on a typical Vue 3 application .env files are supported “natively”, but that does not appear to be working for me at least.

what are you trying to do with .env ? I have it working with code I just posted yesterday

VUE_APP_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID=XXX-XXX-XXX

Then in my code

const db = firebase
  .initializeApp({ projectId: process.env.VUE_APP_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID })
  .firestore();

I am attempting something very similar to this example. I have removed dotenv from my project (which I originally installed thinking it was needed), and reinstalled my packages just in case.

I have a .env file in the root of my project:

API_URL=api.x.com

Then within src/main.ts I have:

console.log("env: " + process.env.API_URL)

Which returns undefined.

I can actually share the Github URL this time, the project is now public: https://github.com/KyleTryon/Sample-ZoomFood-FrontEnd

ionic serve is just calling the vue cli service under the hood, so npm run start and ionic serve should be doing the same exact thing.

see the doc… you have to start your variable with VUE_APP_

Very sorry about that, did not realize the VUE_APP was a requirement and not an example. And thank you @mhartington that also cleared up a major question I had.

Thank you @aaronksaunders I have just validated that this is working :+1:. Appreciate the help and patience.

Thank you Aaron! You’re a lifesaver.

Had same Issue and VUE_APP solved it thanks

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