Node.js quick start

Last updated: Jan-29-2023

This quick start is intended to let you quickly try using several common Cloudinary features. It doesn't necessarily employ coding best practices and the code you create here isn't intended for production.

You can perform this quick start in a code sandbox or in a clean project in the dev environment of your choice.

You can also view the completed code of this quick start in a GitHub repo and code explorer.

Tip
If you aren't familiar with Cloudinary, you may want to first take a look at the Developer get started guide for a high-level overview of integrating Cloudinary into your code, and an introduction to the main concepts.

You may also find our Glossary helpful to understand Cloudinary-specific terminology.

On this page:

Prerequisites

To perform the steps in this quick start, you'll need:

1. Set up and configure the SDK

Install the SDK

In a terminal in your Node.js environment run:

Set your API environment variable

In a terminal, set your CLOUDINARY_URL environment variable.

Replace CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://API_KEY:API_SECRET@CLOUD_NAME with the API environment variable copied from your product environment credentials:

  • On Mac or Linux:

  • On Windows:

Important
  • When writing your own applications, follow your organization's policy on storing secrets and don't expose your API secret.
  • If you use a method that involves writing your environment variable to a file (e.g. dotenv), the file should be excluded from your version control system, so as not to expose it publicly.

Configure Cloudinary

Create a new file called index.js and copy and paste the following into this file:

index.js

2. Upload an image

Copy and paste this into index.js:

index.js (continued)

3. Get and use details of the image

Copy and paste this into index.js:

index.js (continued)

4. Transform the image

Copy and paste this into index.js:

index.js (continued)

5. Run your code

Copy and paste this into index.js to call the functions you just created:

index.js (continued)

Save your changes then run the script from the terminal:

You can see the image that has been uploaded to your Media Library by copying the secure_url that is returned in the upload response and pasting it in a browser.

Happy people image

You can use the returned image tag to display the image on your website. For now, copy and paste the URL to see the transformed image in the browser:

Transformed image of faces

View the completed code

You can see the whole Node.js script in GitHub, and also in the code explorer below.

Code explorer: Full Node.js example

The full Node.js script is shown in the repl below (click Show files > index.js).

To run it:

  1. Click the Run button to bring up the console. In the console, you'll see errors because you need to set your API environment variable. To set your API environment variable, enter the following at the prompt (replace CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://API_KEY:API_SECRET@CLOUD_NAME with the API environment variable copied from your account credentials):

  2. Run the script:

This code is also available in GitHub.

Next steps

  • Learn more about the Node.js SDK by visiting the other pages in this SDK guide.
  • Get comprehensive details about Cloudinary features and capabilities:

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