Configuration

Table of Contents

Config Provider
Env Provider

Config Provider

The first step to having a maintainable codebase is to find a dedicated location for storing application configuration.

AdonisJs uses the config directory, where all files are loaded at boot time.

You can access configuration values via the Config Provider:

const Config = use('Config')
const appSecret = Config.get('app.appSecret')

Config values are fetched using Config.get which accepts a string argument referencing the key you want in the form fileName.key.

You can fetch nested config values using dot notation:

// Example of a configuration file e.g. database.js
{
  mysql: {
    host: '127.0.0.1',
  },
}

// You can retrieve it like so...
Config.get('database.mysql.host')

If you aren’t sure that a key is defined in your configuration, you can supply a second argument that will be returned as the default value:

Config.get('database.mysql.host', '127.0.0.1')

If you want to change the in-memory configuration values, use Config.set:

Config.set('database.mysql.host', 'db.example.com')

Config.set will only change the value in-memory. It will not write the new value to your config file.

Env Provider

When building an application, you may want different configuration based upon the environment your code is running in.

To fulfill this requirement, AdonisJs uses the dotenv library.

Inside the root of every new AdonisJs project, you’ll find an .env.example file. If you used AdonisJs CLI to install your application, this file will be automatically duplicated as .env. Otherwise, you should copy it manually.

The .env file should never be committed to your source control or shared with other people.

The .env file has a simple key=value syntax:

.env

APP_SECRET=F7op5n9vx1nAkno0DsNgZm5vjNXpOLIq
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_USER=root

You can access env values using the Env Provider:

const Env = use('Env')
const appSecret = Env.get('APP_SECRET')

Like the Config Provider, you can provide a default value as the second argument:

Env.get('DB_USER', 'root')

Env.get always return a string. If you want an Env value to act as boolean, you will need to check it via a conditional equality statement, like so:

const myBoolean = Env.get('MY_BOOLEAN') === 'true'

Raising errors if a required environment variable does not exist

When you have an environment variable that is required for running your application, you may use Env.getOrFail() to throw an error if the required variable is not set.

If you want your application to fail quickly at boot time when an environment variable is missing, only limit access to environment variables from inside your configuration files, and do not to use the Env Provider anywhere else in the app.

const Env = use('Env')
// Throw "Make sure to define APP_SECRET inside .env file."
Env.getOrFail('APP_SECRET')

Location of the .env file

You may want to load a different .env file.

This can be done by using the ENV_PATH environment variable:

> ENV_PATH=/user/.env adonis serve

Disabling the .env file

You may want to directly use the environment variables on your server instead of relaying to a file.

This can be done by using the ENV_SILENT environment variable:

> ENV_SILENT=true adonis serve

Testing Environment

If you are starting your application with NODE_ENV set to testing, AdonisJs will load your .env.testing file and merge its values over your .env file.

This is useful to set different credentials when testing your codebase.