Securing Sensitive Credentials with Parcel

Securing Sensitive Credentials with Parcel

  • Often times when using an API in our applications, those API providers require that we send an API Key with our API requests

  • Those API keys should be considered sensitive credentials and the best practice is to use Environment Variables to prevent those sensitive credentials from being exposed

  • However, the use of Environment Variables have traditionally only been available to applications that have a backend server (i.e. Express (via Node))

  • Static applications (application without a built-in backend server) that need to secure sensitive credentials (i.e API Keys, Secret tokens, etc) can use Parcel

What is Parcel?

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  • Parcel is an easy-to-use Web Application Bundler that requires very little configuration

  • Parcel is a lighter-weight version of another popular Web Application Bundler - Webpack

Benefits

  • Bundles all your assets (html, css, js, images, etc) and automatically minimizes file sizes with for faster loading performance

  • Hot Module Replacement - automatic reloading for any code changes (no more having to manually refresh after code changes); commonly referred to as “Hot Reloading” or “Hot Re-booting”

  • Built-in support for ES6 and all it’s features

  • Supports use of Environment Variables for static applications