Making ENV variables accessible in development

Question

When storing sensitive credentials I normally create a yml file and load it like so in my development.rb

APP_CONFIG = YAML.load_file("#{Rails.root}/config/config.yml")[Rails.env]

I can then access like so

APP_CONFIG["google_secret"]

Problem is Heroku doesn't like this so i need to set ENV variables locally to make integration easier. so i have created a env.rb file like so

ENV['google_key'] = 'xxx'
ENV['google_secret'] = 'xxx'
ENV['application_key'] = 'xxx'

and to accesss it i thought i could use

x = ENV['application_key']

But its not finding the variable, how do I load them in the development environment?

Thanks

Please make sure that you have put the `env.rb` file in `initializers` folder. — Kashif Umair Liaqat, Apr 01 '13 at 12:09
i put my env.rb file in the config folder, is this not correct? — Richlewis, Apr 01 '13 at 13:49
It's upto your requirements. If you don't want to push the file to heroku then you should add it to `.gitignore` file. — Kashif Umair Liaqat, Apr 01 '13 at 14:07
works great, put as answer if you like and i will accept, thanks — Richlewis, Apr 01 '13 at 14:27

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '13 at 14:34

3

You should put the env.rb file in initializers folder. You can add env.rb file to .gitignore file if you don't want to push it to heroku.

answered Apr 01 '13 at 14:34

Kashif Umair Liaqat

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score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

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Have you considered using Figaro to do this? Figaro was inspired by Heroku's secret key application configuration, so it's really easy to make secret ENV variables in development accessible in Heroku production environments.

I wrote up an answer on this StackOverflow thread about hiding secret info in Rails (using Figaro) that can hopefully serve of some reference to you as well.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

Community

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answered Apr 01 '13 at 12:09

Paul Fioravanti

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Making ENV variables accessible in development

2 Answers2