Newman: feat: `--env-var` for library usage

[jef]

1. Newman Version (can be found via newman -v): 5.1.2
2. OS details (type, version, and architecture): N/A
3. Are you using Newman as a library, or via the CLI? Library

---

I'd like to see a function that sets environment variables while using the environment key in options. This is good for secrets and other things.

[DannyDainton]

Hey @jef

As you're using it as a library could you include something like dotenv as a workaround?

Once the dotenv module is installed, you can create a .env file and add in your secrets. This can then be used in a Newman run like this:

const newman = require('newman');

require('dotenv').config();

newman.run({
  collection: '< Collection File/URL >',
  environment: {
    "values": [
        {
            "key": "password",
            "value": `${process.env.PASSWORD}`,
            "type": "text",
            "enabled": true
        }
    ]
  },
  reporters: "cli"
})

[jef]

I do have something similar as your example, but I was hoping that we could have another option that abstracts that and potentially merges two environments.

For example, a Postman collection that has a commonKey that is fine to be not a secret. And then lets say you have secrets that need to be loaded into the environment per the run.

I'd think it'd be nice to do something like this:

const newman = require('newman');

require('dotenv').config();

newman.run({
  collection: '< Collection File/URL >',
  environment: '< Environment File/URL >',
  environment-variables: {
    "secret": "secretValue",
    "another_secret": process.env.ANOTHER_SECRET,
  }
  reporters: "cli"
})

The only reason I'm suggesting something like this is so that we don't have to repeat ourselves in the environment. CLI makes this possible (at least loading from a json) and then adding env-var.

[DannyDainton]

Hey @jef

Just coming back to this and trying it out again. This _should_ work in your code to use the 2 different types of variables:

const newman = require('newman');

require('dotenv').config();

newman.run({
  collection: 'collection.json',
  environment: 'environment.json',
  envVar: [ 
        { "key":"secret", "value":"secretValue" },
        { "key":"another_secret", "value":`${process.env.ANOTHER_SECRET}`}
  ],
  reporters: ["cli","htmlextra"],
  reporter: {
    htmlextra: {
      showEnvironmentData: true
    }
  }
})

This is just an output image showing it using the 2 different ways to inject the variables:

[jef]

Ahh, okay! I'll give that a go. I'll update the example in the README to reflect.

Thank you very much!

[DannyDainton]

Hey @jef,

As this is just waiting on the docs to be updated, I'm going to close this issue out.

Thank you so much for supporting the Newman and submitting those PRs 🏆

[urakagi]

Hello, is the doc updated already?
Today I read the document, did this wrong thing:

newman.run({
  envVar: [ 
        { "secret": "secretValue" }
  ]
})

Is the current document clear enough to let users know the correct structure? To me the {"key": ..., "value": ...} format is not that institutive.