environment_variables.md

Enabling Environment Variables

Environment variables is a feature that can be optionally enabled in Hozokit.

When enabled, Hozokit will make use of environment variables to configure certain features such as hot reloading and change the way assets are bundled (e.g styles and scripts are not minified on a development environment).

Additionally, developers can take advantage of environment variables and access them in .twig templates or in their .php scripts.

Setup Environment Variables

1. Create an .env file in the theme folder directory. An .env.example file is provided as a starting point.

2. Set the app environment. If the value is set to development Hozokit won't minify styles which can be helpful when debugging CSS and JavaScript:

APP_ENVIRONMENT='development'

Each environment will have its own .env. For example, the production server will have its APP_ENVIRONMENT set to 'production', staging to 'staging' and so on. Each version of the site can have its own configuration.

Using environment variables

Developers can take advantage of environment variables by using them in .twig templates and .php scripts.

1. Add one or more variables to .env:

APP_ENVIRONMENT='development'
API_KEY='m3dMf6XC9NQ^ao8H3csx'
UPDATES_ENABLED=true

2. Use a variable on a template. All variables become available to context by accessing env:

{% block example %}
  <section class="example">
    <h1>hozokit</h1>
    <p>An example component.</p>

    {# Makes use of environment variable to determine if markup should be rendered. #}
    {% if env.UPDATES_ENABLED %}
      <ul>
        <li>New shiny colors!</li>
        <li>Orders now get delivered right to your door for free.</li>
        <li>Accounts can be created so users can keep track or their orders.</li>
      </ul>
    {% endif %}
    
  </section>
{% endblock %}

3. Use a variable on functions.php. In this case a constant is used to get hold of the variable instead:

$payments_key = $_ENV['API_KEY'];
setup_payments($payments_key);

Additional Notes

Hozokit makes use of Vance Lucas' phpdotenv to environment variables on the PHP side and Scott Motte's dotenv package to make them available in internal Node scripts (gulpfile.js).