Environment detection: node.js or browser

NOTE: This question had two parts, but because the title was "Environment detection: node.js or browser" - I will get to this part first, because I guess many people are coming here to look for an answer to that. A separate question might be in order.

In JavaScript variables can be redefined by the inner scopes, thus assuming that environment has not created variables named as process, global or window could easily fail, for example if one is using node.js jsdom module, the API usage example has

var window = doc.defaultView;

After which detecting the environment based on the existence of window variable would systematically fail by any module running under that scope. With the same logic any browser based code could easily overwrite global or process, because they are not reserved variables in that environment.

Fortunately there is a way of requiring the global scope and testing what it is - if you create a new function using a new Function() constructor, the execution scope of this is bound to the global scope and you can compare the global scope directly to the expected value. *)

So to create a function check if the global scope is "window" would be

var isBrowser=new Function("try {return this===window;}catch(e){ return false;}");

// tests if global scope is bound to window
if(isBrowser()) console.log("running under browser");

And function to test if global scope is bound to "global" would be

var isNode=new Function("try {return this===global;}catch(e){return false;}");

// tests if global scope is bound to "global"
if(isNode()) console.log("running under node.js");

the try... catch -part will makes sure that if variable is not defined, false is returned.

The isNode()could also compare this.process.title==="node" or some other global scope variable found inside node.js if you will, but comparing to the global should be enough in practice.

http://jsfiddle.net/p6yedbqk/

NOTE: detecting the running environment is not recommended. However, it can be useful in a specific environment, like development and testing environment which has some known characteristics for the global scope.

Now - the second part of the answer. after the environment detection has been done, you can select which environment based strategy you want to use (if any) to bind your variable which are "global" to your application.

The recommended strategy here, in my opinion, would be to use a singleton pattern to bind your settings inside a class. There is a good list of alternatives already in SO

Simplest/cleanest way to implement a singleton in JavaScript

So, it may turn out if you do not need a "global" variable, and you do not need the environment detection at all, just use the singleton pattern to defined a module, which will store the values for you. OK, one can argue that the module itself is a global variable, which in JavaScript it actually is, but at least in theory it looks a bit cleaner way of doing it.

*) https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Function

Note: Functions created with the Function constructor do not create closures to their creation contexts; they always are created in the global scope. When running them, they will only be able to access their own local variables and global ones, not the ones from the scope in which the Function constructor was called.

Since apparently Node.js could have both (w/ NW.js?), my personnal way to do it is by detecting if the node entry exists in process.versions object.

var isNode = false;    
if (typeof process === 'object') {
  if (typeof process.versions === 'object') {
    if (typeof process.versions.node !== 'undefined') {
      isNode = true;
    }
  }
}

The multilevel of conditions is to avoid errors while searching into an undefined variable due to some browsers limitations.

Reference: https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_versions

There is an npm package just for this and it can be used both on client-side and server-side.

browser-or-node

You can use it this way

if (isBrowser) {
  // do browser only stuff
}

if (isNode) {
  // do node.js only stuff
}

Disclaimer: I am the author of this package :)