title: Node JS environment variables and Heroku deployment
body: <p>I have a project using the dotenv package to load my environment variables in my NodeJS application
  I use the following line</p>
  
  <pre><code>var dotenv = require('dotenv').load({ silent: true }); 
  
  //Example of use
  username: process.env.CONVERSATION_USERNAME
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am now planning to deploy this application on Heroku. However, for some obvious security reasons i don't want to commit my .env file.</p>
  
  <p>I'm new to NodeJS and I would like to know if there is a way to say "If the .env file doesn't exists, load the environment variable from Heroku"</p>
  
  <p>Thanks,
  Alexi</p>