stela 3.0.1

Find and read your project configuration files easily

Welcome to Stela

Stela were the "configuration files" of ancient times. This library aims to simplify your project configurations, from json, yaml, ini or toml files in a single Python dictionary, which values can be easily be overridden by environment variables.

Index

1. Install
2. Basic Use
3. Environment Variables from Shell
4. Using layered environments
5. Customize Stela
6. Advanced Use
7. How Stela find the configuration files?
8. How Stela find the Environment Variables?
9. How Stela handle more complex cases?
10. Full Lifecycle example
11. When Stela read the data?
12. Refreshing Stela settings
13. How Stela read the dictionary values?
14. All Stela Configuration Options
15. Migrate from version 1.x

Install

$ pip install stela

Basic Use

For your project settings, you need to create a pyproject.toml file, and under the table environment add the key/values you need:

# pyproject.toml
[environment]
my_file_path = "/foo/bar"
my_api_url = "https://foo.bar"
db.url = "user@password:db"

In Python you will access these settings importing stela like this:

from stela import settings

API_URL = settings["my_api_url"]
# API_URL = "https://foo.bar"

Environment Variables from Shell

Stela will check first, for the requested key, his SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE format in environment memory or .env file. If no data is found, Stela will return the value from pyproject.toml tables.

Some examples:

Variable in toml	Environment Variable Name
debug	DEBUG
3rd_party_api_url	3_RD_PARTY_API_URL
db.password	DB_PASSWORD

For example, for db.url Stela will look for DB_URL in the following order:

1. Import .env data, if exists, in python environment, using python-dotenv library.
2. Check for DB_URL in os.environ
3. Fallback to db.url in pyproject.toml

If data does not exist, Stela will raise a KeyError, like a dictionary.

# pyproject.toml
db.url = "fake@credentials"

# .env file
DB_URL=real@credentials  # will override info from pyproject.toml

from stela import settings

DATABASE_URL = settings["db.url"]
# DATABASE_URL = "real@credentials"

Using layered environments

For now, Stela are looking only for the environment table in your pyproject.toml. But you may need to define your settings per environment layer (i.e. development, tests, staging, production, etc.)

First add use_environment_layers in Stela options:

# pyproject.toml
[tool.stela]
use_environment_layers = true

Then define environment sub-tables in pyproject.toml:

# pyproject.toml
[tool.stela]
use_environment_layers = true

[environment]  # now is a shared data between environments
my_api_timeout = 30

[environment.local]
my_api_url = "http://localhost:8000"

[environment.production]
my_api_url = "https://foo.bar"

When you add use_environment_layers = true in config, Stela will now always try to find the current environment looking for the ENVIRONMENT variable. If this variable is not defined, Stela will use the default environment, if available. If not, will raise a StelaEnvironmentNotFoundError.

To add a default environment, use the default_environment option:

# pyproject.toml
[tool.stela]
use_environment_layers = true
default_environment = "local"

[environment]  # now is a shared data between environments
my_api_timeout = 30

[environment.local]
my_api_url = "http://localhost:8000"

[environment.production]
my_api_url = "https://foo.bar"

To use different environment variable, use the environment_variable_name option:

# pyproject.toml
[tool.stela]
use_environment_layers = true
default_environment = "local"
environment_variable_name = "ENV"

[environment]  # now is a shared data between environments
my_api_timeout = 30

[environment.local]
my_api_url = "http://localhost:8000"

[environment.production]
my_api_url = "https://foo.bar"

Customize Stela

Use the following variables to customize Stela behavior:

# You can also set these as environment variables too using STELA_ prefix.
# For example, environment_variable_name can be override from STELA_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME

[tool.stela]
environment_variable_name = "ENVIRONMENT"   # The Environment variable
default_environment = ""                    # The default value for Environment variable
env_table = "environment"                   # The main environment table in pyproject.toml
use_environment_layers = false              # Use environment layers
env_file = ".env"                           # dotenv file name
config_file_path = "."                      # relative path for configuration files
do_not_read_dotenv = false                  # If True, will load dotenv file in os.environ
dotenv_overwrites_memory = true             # If True, will not overwrite keys from dotenv file if they exists on environ
show_logs = false                           # Show Stela Logs
show_filtered_value = true                  # Show Value from Stela settings in logs filtered. Use with caution.

Example:

# shell
$ export DJANGO_ENV=production

# pyproject.toml
[tool.stela]
use_environment_layers = true
environment_variable_name = "DJANGO_ENV"
env_table = "my_project.config"

[my_project.config]
project.debug = true

[my_project.config.production]
project.debug = false

# settings.py
from stela import settings

DEBUG = settings["project.debug"]  # False from pyproject.toml or from PROJECT_DEBUG in environment

Advanced Use

For very large projects, you can use separate environment layer per config files (like development.ini, staging.ini, etc.)

Also, you can use .yaml, .ini, .json and .toml files.

In all files, Stela will always respect nested data. Suppose a file called development.ini which contains:

[foo]
bar = value

As we know, Stela will convert data into a python dictionary:

{
    "foo": {
        "bar": "value"
    }
}

You can use the settings like this:

from stela import settings

my_conf = settings["foo.bar"]  # my_conf = "value"

This is possible because Stela uses under the hood the Scalpl library.

How Stela find the configuration files?

By default, Stela will use the value from ENVIRONMENT environment variable to find correspondent INI file. For example, if you set ENVIRONMENT=development Stela will look for development.ini file in project root.

You can change this behaviour inside pyproject.toml file:

[tools.stela]
environment_variable_name = "ENVIRONMENT"   # Default Enviroment variable name
config_file_extension = "INI"               # YAML, TOML, JSON
config_file_prefix = ""                     # You can add a prefix before name - ex.: env_development.ini
config_file_suffix = ""                     # You can add a suffix after name - ex.: development_v1.ini
default_environment = "development"         # use this if you do not want to define the ENVIRONMENT key
config_file_path = "."                      # relative path from project root for configuration files

How Stela find the Environment Variables?

We know Stela will try to find an environment variable using his SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE version. In this case, when the key is foo.bar, Stela will search for an env called FOO_BAR in os.environ files, before returning his dict value. Also, you can add a prefix/suffix in this name (ex.: MYPROJECT_FOO_BAR). To do this, define them in pyproject.toml:

[tools.stela]
environment_prefix = "MYPROJECT_"
environment_suffix = ""

from stela import settings

my_conf = settings["foo.bar"]
# my_conf = "hello world" from MYPROJECT_FOO_BAR

Also, you can define Stela to never get values from shell and/or dotenv, only from dictionary:

[tools.stela]
do_not_read_environment = true
do_not_read_dotenv = true

How Stela handle more complex cases?

Stela uses this lifecycle to handle the settings load, using the pre_load, custom_load and post_load decorators to modified data received from files and pyproject.toml, before importing settings.

To use this:

1. The decorated function must return a valid python dictionary.
2. Just one decorated function per phase.
3. Import the decorated functions before import stela settings for the first time. If you create the file conf_stela.py at project root, decorated functions in there will be imported automatically.

The Pre-Load Phase (optional)

If defined, will always be the first step. To setup, create a conf_stela.py file on project root and use the pre_load decorator for your code.

Pre-Load Example:

# conf_stela.py at project root
import plaster
from stela.decorators import pre_load
from stela.stela_options import StelaOptions
from typing import Dict, Any

@pre_load
def get_from_plaster(options: StelaOptions) -> Dict[Any, Any]:
    """Get data from plaster.

    Must return a valid Python dictionary.

    :param options: StelaOptions instance
    :return dict
    """
    env = options.current_environment  # get current environment during lifecycle
    config_uri = f"{env}.ini#myapp"
    settings = plaster.get_settings(config_uri, 'my-settings')
    return settings

The Load Phase

In this phase Stela will run 2 default loaders and a third optional custom loader (if defined) on this default order:

1. Runs embed loader (retrieve data from pyproject.toml, if exists)
2. Runs file loader (retrieve data from config files, if exists)
3. Runs custom loader if defined (from custom_load decorator, if exists)

Each step updates data received from the previous step. You can change this order, modifying the load_order in config:

# Or STELA_LOAD_ORDER env
[tool.stela]
# Default value is ["embed", "file", "custom"]
load_order = ["custom"]

Custom Load Example:

# conf_stela.py at project root
from stela.decorators import custom_load
from stela.stela_options import StelaOptions
from typing import Dict, Any

@custom_load
def remove_bad_data(data: Dict[Any, Any], options: StelaOptions) -> Dict[Any, Any]:
    """Remove bad data.

    Must return a valid Python dictionary.

    :param options: StelaOptions instance
    :return dict
    """
    can_remove_bad_data = options.dotenv_data.get("REMOVE_BAD_DATA")  # reading dotenv during lifecycle
    if can_remove_bad_data:
        data.pop("bad_key", None)
    return data

The Post-Load Phase

This is, always, the last phase.

# conf_stela.py at project root
import boto3
from stela.decorators import post_load
from stela import StelaOptions
from typing import Dict, Any

@post_load
def add_ssm_parameters(data: dict, options: StelaOptions) -> Dict[Any, Any]:
    """Load settings from SSM to current Stela data.

    Data returned must be a Python Dictionary.

    :param data (dict): Data parsed from previous phases
    :param options (obj): Stela Options from pyproject.toml
    :return Dict[Any, Any]
    """
    ssm = boto3.client('ssm')
    environment = options.current_environment
    response = ssm.get_parameters_by_path(
        Path=f'/foo/bar/{environment}',
        WithDecryption=True
    )
    return {parameter["Name"]: parameter["Value"] for parameter in response["Parameters"]}

Full Lifecycle example

# conf_stela.py at project root
from stela.decorators import pre_load, custom_load, post_load
from typing import Dict, Any
from stela import StelaOptions

@pre_load
def pre_load(options: StelaOptions) -> Dict[Any, Any]:
    # data value is: {}
    # Stela Options are available in options object.
    return {"foo": "bar"}

@custom_load
def load(data: dict, options: StelaOptions) -> Dict[Any, Any]:
    # data value is: {"foo": "bar", "test": True} from from pre_load and pyproject.toml
    return {"has_dogs": True}

@post_load
def post_load(data: dict, options: StelaOptions) -> Dict[Any, Any]:
    # data value is: {"foo": "bar", "has_dogs": True, "test": True}
    return {"number_of_dogs": 1}

# Final data is {"foo": "bar", "has_dogs": True, "number_of_dogs": 1}

When Stela read the data?

Stela are imported once, at module level - project settings are load and immediately available:

from stela import settings
from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)
app.config.update(
    SECRET_KEY=settings["my_app_secret"] # will read from dict or MY_APP_SECRET value, after run all lifecycle
)

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return f"Hello, Environment is {settings.stela_options.current_environment}"

Refreshing Stela settings

If you need to reload settings, use the stela.stela_reload function. Check the unit tests for additional input.

How Stela read the dictionary values?

Stela will respect the file format limitations. For example, INI files always return values as string, TOML files returning datetime objects, etc...

For environment variables, Stela will return value as string, by default. For example: NUMBER_OF_CATS=3 will return a string.

You can set Stela to evaluate these values, as per ast.literal_eval rules. To do this, add in pyproject.toml:

[tool.stela]
evaluate_data = true

Logging data

Stela use the loguru package for logging, using INFO for general messages and DEBUG for key/values retrieved in toml, environment keys, decorators, etc... You can use the logs to debug data during Stela lifecycle.

By default, log are disabled. You can modify this behavior globally with the following configurations:

[tool.stela]
show_logs = true
show_filtered_value = true

Also, you can use decorators for fine-tuning logging (you can use these decorations multiple times):

from stela import settings
from stela.decorators import stela_enable_logs, stela_disable_logs

@stela_enable_logs
def my_bugged_code():
    return settings["my_api_url"]

@stela_disable_logs
def my_sensible_code():
    return settings["my_credentials"]

Example

2021-08-24 22:05:56.969 | INFO     | stela.stela:get_project_settings:61 - Starting Stela Load Phase. Order is: [embed, file, custom] ...
2021-08-24 22:05:56.970 | INFO     | stela.loaders.embed:read_embed:32 - Looking for table [environment] inside pyproject.toml...
2021-08-24 22:05:56.971 | DEBUG    | stela.stela:log_dict:101 - [pyproject.toml] 'stele = ro***ta'

The log level can be defined using the LOGURU_LOG_LEVEL as per loguru documentation.

All Stela Configuration Options

All configuration files can be override using a environment variable, using the STELA_ prefix. For example, default_environment turns STELA_DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENT.

# All keys and default values available in pyproject.toml
[tool.stela]
config_file_extension = "INI"                       # or YAML, TOML, JSON
config_file_path = "."                              # relative path from project root, for config files (i.e. .env, development.ini, etc.)
config_file_prefix = ""                             # You can add a prefix before name - ex.: env_development.ini
config_file_suffix = ""                             # You can add a suffix after name - ex.: development_v1.ini
default_environment = ""                            # The default value for Environment variable
do_not_read_environment = false                     # Do not read environment variables from shell
do_not_read_dotenv = false                          # Do not read dotenv file
env_file = ".env"                                   # dotenv file name
env_table = "environment"                           # The main environment table in pyproject.toml
environment_prefix = ""                             # ex.: settings["foo.bar"] looks for MY_PREFIX_FOO_BAR
environment_suffix = ""                             # ex.: settings["foo.bar"] looks for FOO_BAR_MY_SUFFIX
environment_variable_name = "ENVIRONMENT"           # The Environment variable
evaluate_data = false                               # Evaluate data received from config files
load_order = ["embed", "file", "custom"]            # Default order for Loaders in Load Phase
show_logs = false                                   # As per loguru settings.
show_filtered_value = true                          # When logging data, filter values from dict/env.
use_environment_layers = false                      # Use environment layers
dotenv_overwrites_memory = true                     # If True, will not overwrite keys from dotenv file if they exists on environ

Migrating from version 1.x

• Support for Python 3.6 was dropped
• The stela_reload function now is imported now from stela.utils
• The @load decorator now was renamed to @custom_load
• To mimic Stela load behavior from 1.x (Pre -> Load or Custom -> Post), please configure the old lifecycle in pyproject.toml:

[tool.stela]
use_environment_layers = true
do_not_read_dotenv = true
load_order = ["file"] # or ["custom"] with @custom_load decorator

Not working?

Dont panic. Get a towel and, please, open a issue.