envars 0.3.5

Read environmental variables

Helper function to read the environment variables in the development machine and on the production machine (only for heroku.com)

What is the purpose of this library

This Library will help you read the environment variables needed to run your software

• An example of the environment variables would be:

  • database_login = datamaster

  • database_password = asdlf@#$kkLK!@)(“”)

  • DATABASE_URL = postgres://dsdsfd:asdfasgsdfgjjkdty.compute-1.amazonaws.com:532/jj4566ls

You are likely to have the variable stored differently in your development and production environment:

• In your development/local machine:

  • these files are stored in a local text file (usually called .env)

  • your code will open the file, parse the text and read the variable

• If your production environment is heroku.com

  • you can get the variables by os.environ()

As you can see, the code to read the env variable is different in the development machine and the production machine

Envars a function that will read it transparently from the development or production machine using the same code

How to use this library

Usage:

import envars.envars as envars
e_dct = envars.getenvars()

The environment variables are now in e_dct. Assuming you are running on a local machine and have a .env file that looks like this:

a=1
b=2

You can look at the values in e_dct:

>> print e_dct
defaultdict(<function <lambda> at 0x10cddbd70>, {'a': '1', 'b': '1'})

>> print e_dct['a']
'1'

If you are on the production machine at heroku.com, make sure you have the following variable in the heroku environment:

ENV_NOW=production

Envars uses this as a sign that you are on the production environment and will read it correctly. Now, on the production environment, you code will do the following:

>> print e_dct
defaultdict(<function <lambda> at 0x10cddbd70>, {"ENV_NOW":"production", 'a': '1', 'b': '1'})

>> print e_dct['a']
'1'

>> print e_dct['ENV_NOW']
'production'

Limitations of this library

Designed only for Heroku.com as production environment