JSON parsing error when loading Firebase service account from .env file in Python

Question

I'm encountering an issue with parsing a Firebase service account stored in a .env file using Python. Here's my approach:

import firebase_admin
from firebase_admin import credentials
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os, json

load_dotenv()
firebase_config = os.getenv("FIREBASE_CONFIG")
firebase_config = json.loads(firebase_config)  # Error occurs here
cred = credentials.Certificate(firebase_config)
firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred)

The json.loads() function raises a parsing error, likely due to newline characters (\n) or other special characters within the service account string. How can I effectively load the service account from the .env file and use it with the Firebase Admin SDK in Python?

Specific questions:

• What's the recommended way to handle special characters in service account strings when storing them in .env files?
• Are there alternative approaches to loading service accounts in Python that might be more robust?

Answer 1

I found the Solution and Best Practice for this issue by myself:

Escaping Special Characters in .env Files

Escape special characters within the service account string using backslashes () when storing it in the .env file. Here's an example:

{\"type\":\"service_account\"}

This ensures that json.loads() interprets the string correctly as JSON.