Storing secrets in source-controlled files is a bad idea, but we still need some way to provide these sensitive credentials or configuration values to our projects. This problem is exacerbated in development environments where we are running multiple servers at once. This package let's us solve this problem for servers started with CommandBox.

This package loads up local files as Java Properties for both CommandBox commands and servers. The usage is nearly identical, but with enough gotchas to warrant breaking them out in to separate sections.

One note about the .env file: Do not commit it to source control. Add it to your .gitignore immediately.

Another good tip is to create an .env.example file that is source controlled that contains all the keys required in your .env file but none of the values.

When loading up the CLI, this package will look for a .env file in the directory where CommandBox is being loaded or executed. If found it will take the key / value pairs found in the file and store them as Java properties. These values are now available in any CommandBox command either using the java.lang.System object and the getProperties() or getProperty(name, defaultValue) methods (Note: the keys are case-sensitive), or by using CommandBox's built-in system variable expansion.

Since the CommandBox properties are loaded on CLI start, you will need to reload CommandBox before seeing any changes to the .env file. This can be accomplished just by running reload from the interactive shell. If you are running one-off commands, this happens on each command for you already.

When starting up a server, this package will look for a .env file in the webroot of the server starting. If found it will take the key / value pairs found in the file and store them as Java properties. These values are now available in your web application using the java.lang.System object and the getProperties() or getProperty(name, defaultValue) methods (Note: the keys are case-sensitive).

The file name .env can be overridden, if desired.

For instance, by running:

config set modules.commandbox-dotenv.filename=env.properties

all your file names will need to be env.properties.

There is currently no way to provide a per-project override.

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Eric Peterson 💻 📖	Brad Wood 🔌

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!