variables.md

Secure Variables

There are 2 possible dotenv files. The first being the base .env file, which is loaded first for all environments, and the second being the environment specific .env.{key} file (.env.local, .env.prod, etc), which is loaded based on the APP_ENV variable. Any variables defined in the later file will overwrite the former, unless explicitly set as immutable.

To make use of these variables, they will need to be loaded during the detection process.

Configuration Formatting

The .env files use an INI configuration like structure with a few additional features, like type casting, inline comments, lists, and maps. All keys must be in alpha-numeric uppercase format (underscores allowed).

To start, all primitive types are supported.

STRING = foo
STRING_WITH_QUOTES = "bar baz"
INTEGER = 123
FLOAT = 456.7
BOOL_TRUE = true
BOOL_FALSE = false

As well as lists and maps.

LIST[] = 123
LIST[] = 456
LIST[] = 789
MAP[foo] = bar
MAP[baz] = qux

And finally, 3 types of inline comments.

; This is a comment
# As well as this
// And also this one

Variable Interpolation

Variables may be nested within each other using curly brace syntax. Only strings are supported.

FOO = foo
BAR = bar
STRING = "{FOO}-{BAR}" # foo-bar

Retrieving A Variable

Once loaded, we can access the variables using getVariable() and getVariables() on the Titon\Environment\Detection instance, or through the global env() function.

$env->getVariable('STRING'); // foo

env('FLOAT'); // 456.7

Secure variables will not be found in $_ENV or $_SERVER, as super globals are immutable.

Immutable Variables

When loading .env files, the .env.{key} file has the ability to overwrite variables found in the base file. In some cases, we do not want to overwrite a variable, like APP_ENV for instance. To circumvent this, a variable can be marked as immutable.

Titon\Environment\Loader::lock('VAR_NAME');

The APP_ENV variable is immutable by default.