Variables

[PascalSenn]

The following section represent the part in the README and is up for dicussion

Variables

Confix has the concept of variables. These variables are typically used to reference secrets, or any configuration data that should not be directly entered into the configuration files. They can be used for values are not known at development time.

In Confix, variables have a distinct structure: $providerName:path.to.resource, where providerName refers to the source or provider of the variable value, and path.to.resource indicates the specific resource or secret in the provider's repository.

Variables are resolved during the build operation of the configuration. This operation can take place at various stages of your development lifecycle. You can also validate your configuration against a specific environment to ensure that all variables can be resolved before deployment. For more on this, see the Deploying your App section.

The specification for variable providers is contained in the .confix.project file, or inherited from .confixrc. During project initialization, all potential variables are fetched from the providers (if possible), offering intelligent code completion during your development.

Providers

Different providers can be utilized to manage your variables:

• $keyvault: Use this when your variables are stored in Azure Key Vault. The path should be the name of the variable as it is in the key vault.

• $vault: For those utilizing HashiCorp Vault for secret management, this is the appropriate provider.

• $secret: This provider allows you to inline the secrets directly into your config using public-private key encryption. For instance, $secret:aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g/dj1hM1o3ekVjN0FYUQ==.

• $local: Use this provider to reference local variables, typically stored in a variables.json file in your document root.

• $git: This provider fetches variables from a specific git repository.

Example JSON with Variables

Here's an example JSON configuration file that uses Confix variables:

{
  "database": {
    "connectionString": "$keyvault:database.connectionString",
    "maxPoolSize": 12 
  },
  "logging": {
    "level": "$git:logging.level",
    "destinatin": "$git:logging.server.url"
  },
  "appSecrets": {
    "apiKey": "$secret:aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g/dj1hM1o3ekVjN0FYUQ==",
    "jwtSecret": "$vault:jwt.secret"
  }
}

Commands

To manage variables in Confix, you can use the following commands:

• confix variables reload: This command reloads the variables for a project from the providers. Useful for updating your local environment with newly created variables.

• confix variables set <variable> <value>: This command sets the value for a specified variable.

• confix variables get <variable>: This command retrieves the current value of a specified variable.

[TimHolzherr]

Naming of Providers

I would propose to use $azurekeyvault instead of $keyvault in the Provider chapter. This will allow to add other keyvaults in the future in a consistent way. The same for $vault, I would use $hashicorpvault instead

[TimHolzherr]

It seems that these keywords are configurable. Let's add a sentence to the current chapter which explains this.

[TimHolzherr]

Git repository url in the provided git provider example.

In the provided example for the git provider "level": "$git:logging.level", it is unclear to me where we can specify the url of the git repository. It could be that we have the need to load different variables from different git repositories so we should be able to specify the url per variable.