How to authenticate google-vision api credentials on heroku using node.js?

Question

I am running a Node.js application on localhost, which uses Google Vision API to process an image. I am able to authenticate the API locally by providing the path to the .json file, however when I deploy my application to Heroku, it fails to process the API call and I am assuming the reason behind this would be that it is failing API authentication. How can I authenticate the Google-Vision API on Heroku using the .json file provided by google cloud?

Answer 1

If anyone is still looking for this answer, without installing any additional npm package, I solve the authentication issue by checking https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/config-vars and setting it in my app this way:

1. place the .json file in the root directory of the app, then deploy it to heroku

2. Go to settings in your heroku app and set a new CONFIG VARIABLE like this:

   key : GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS

   value: MYCREDENTIALS.json

**** note the name of the file has no quotes (""), click add and it should work.