Angular-cli: Improvement: externalizing environment from Angular CLI build process

[bjornharvold]

There is a great article: http://www.jvandemo.com/how-to-configure-your-angularjs-application-using-environment-variables/ about externalizing the environment file from the build. The deployment phase can be responsible for providing the app with the correct environment variables. "Build once - Deploy anywhere".

What I did in my own project to get this to work was to externalize my environment parameters the same way as the article had it. Then I imported those variables in the environment.dev.ts file like so:

export const environment = {
production: false,
environment: window['__env'].environment,
build: window['__env'].build,
siteName: window['__env'].siteName,
};

I also referred to my real environment file in index.html via a javascript import.

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Current behavior
No bug

Expected behavior
No bug

Minimal reproduction of the problem with instructions
Environment files are compiled with the app during build phase for Angular CLI. It should [ideally] be outside.

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior?
Build once - Deploy anywhere.

• Angular version: 2.0.1
• Language: [TypeScript 2.0.2]

[antonybudianto]

using window = using dom = not cross platform solution.
Either way I agree that the current environment variable is still lacking, I prefer something like dotenv solution (create-react-app uses this, just FYI)

[filipesilva]

Using window is not advisable for the reasons @antonybudianto put out.

While I agree there is room for improvement, I don't agree with this approach. It was one of the approaches we considered initially and decided to go with the current one.

[bjornharvold]

Totally understand. That implementation gets the job done for me today. The current solution forces me to build per environment and when you get to more than 5 environments, that turns into a headache.

Looking forward to what you guys come up with! Good work!!

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