How to configure Angular to build to different environments

Angular is a popular JavaScript framework for building web applications, and it provides a way to configure the build for different environments, such as development, staging, and production. In this blog post, we’ll cover how to configure Angular for building to different environments.

Step 1: Create environment files

The first step is to create environment files for each environment. In Angular, these files are stored in the src/environments directory. You should create separate environment files for each environment you want to support. For example, environment.ts, environment.staging.ts, and environment.prod.ts.

Each environment file should contain configuration information specific to that environment. For example, the environment.ts file might contain the following:

export const environment = {
  production: false,
  apiUrl: 'http://localhost:3000/api'
};

Step 2: Update the Angular CLI configuration

Next, you need to update the Angular CLI configuration to use the correct environment file for each build. This is done in the angular.json file. Here's an example configuration that supports a development environment, a staging environment, and a production environment:

"configurations": {
  "development": {
    "fileReplacements": [
      {
        "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
        "with": "src/environments/environment.ts"
      }
    ]
  },
  "staging": {
    "fileReplacements": [
      {
        "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
        "with": "src/environments/environment.staging.ts"
      }
    ]
  },
  "production": {
    "fileReplacements": [
      {
        "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
        "with": "src/environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Step 3: Build for a specific environment

Finally, you can build your Angular application for a specific environment using the --configuration option. For example, to build for the development environment, you would run the following command:

ng build --configuration=development

To build for the staging environment, you would run the following command:

ng build --configuration=staging

And to build for the production environment, you would run the following command:

ng build --configuration=production

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can configure Angular to build for different environments. This will allow you to easily switch between environments for testing and deployment, and ensure that your application is properly configured for each environment.