Cannot read property 'trim' of undefined in Node.js

Question

const express = require('express')
const barongJwt = require('node-auth-barong')
const app = express()
const port = 3000


const barongJwtPublicKey = Buffer.from(process.env.BARONG_JWT_PUBLIC_KEY.trim(), 'base64').toString('utf-8')
 
app.get('/protected',
  barongJwt({barongJwtPublicKey: barongJwtPublicKey}),
  function(req, res) {
    if (!req.user.admin) return res.sendStatus(401);
    res.sendStatus(200);
  });

app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Example app listening on port ${port}!`))

I am working on a Javascript application. Why I am getting "TypeError: Cannot read property 'trim' of undefined"?

const barongJwtPublicKey = Buffer.from(process.env.BARONG_JWT_PUBLIC_KEY.trim(), 'base64').toString('utf-8')
                                                                         ^

TypeError: Cannot read property 'trim' of undefined

Answer 1

reason for this error is your env file don't have BARONG_JWT_PUBLIC_KEY property or it's value. Things to note

1. Make Sure you have .env file and in that file have BARONG_JWT_PUBLIC_KEY in it Sharing an example install dotenv
2. On safer side use this as code if you don't follow the step one

const express = require('express')
const barongJwt = require('node-auth-barong')
const app = express()
const port = 3000

const paramString = process.env.BARONG_JWT_PUBLIC_KEY ?? "";
const barongJwtPublicKey = Buffer.from(paramString.trim(), 'base64').toString('utf-8')
 
app.get('/protected',
  barongJwt({barongJwtPublicKey: barongJwtPublicKey}),
  function(req, res) {
    if (!req.user.admin) return res.sendStatus(401);
    res.sendStatus(200);
  });

app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Example app listening on port ${port}!`))