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environment-variables.md

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Environment Variables

To run the backend you need to export environment variables.

These are the needed environment variables:

export FLASK_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG=<dev-or-test-or-prod-or-local>
export SECRET_KEY=<your-secret-key>
export SECURITY_PASSWORD_SALT=<your-security-password-salt>
export MAIL_DEFAULT_SENDER=<mail-default-sender>
export MAIL_SERVER=<mail-server>
export APP_MAIL_USERNAME=<app-mail-username>
export APP_MAIL_PASSWORD=<app-mail-password>
export MOCK_EMAIL = <True-or-False>

Environment Variables Description

Run Configuration

Environment Variable Description Example

| FLASK_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG | Short running environment name so that Flask know which configuration to load. Currently, there are 4 options for this: dev, test, local and prod. If you want to use a simple local database (e.g.: sqlite) then set your environment config value as local. To use the development environment with a remote database configuration you should use dev as a value. | local |

These are the currently available run configurations:

  • local: Local environment used when developing locally
  • dev: Development environment used when developing with a remote database configuration
  • test: Testing environment used when running tests
  • prod: Production environment used when a server is deployed

Security

Environment Variable Description Example
SECRET_KEY Variable used to encrypt or hash sensitive data. JWT based authentication uses this variable to calculate the hash of the access token. Its also used to calculate the password hash to avoid saving it in plain text. This is in string format. 'some random key'
SECURITY_PASSWORD_SALT Variable used for email confirmation token generation. This is in string format. 'some password salt'

Email Verification

Email verification is when a user registers into the application and to be able to login, this user has to verify/confirm its email. To do this the user has to go to its emails and click the link from the mail sent by our application email.

Environment Variable Description Example
MAIL_DEFAULT_SENDER Email used to send email verification emails. This is in string format. 'some_username@gmail.com'
MAIL_SERVER SMTP server address/name used by the email account that sends the verification emails. This is in string format. 'smtp.gmail.com'
APP_MAIL_USERNAME Username of the email account used to send verification emails. This is in string format. 'some_username'
APP_MAIL_PASSWORD Password of the email account used to send verification emails. This is in string format. 'some_password'

Note:

  • In the examples we use Gmail account example, but you are not restricted to use a Gmail account to send the verification email. If you use other email providers make sure to research about the correct SMTP server name.
  • The ' character may be optional for environment variables without space on them.

Mock Email Service

The email sending behaviour can be mocked by setting MOCK_EMAIL to 'True'. When set to 'True' it pipes the email as terminal output. Setting it to 'False' (or not setting it) will result in sending emails.

Exporting environment variables

Assume that KEY is the name of the variable and VALUE is the actual value of the environment variable. To export an environment variable you have to run:

export KEY=VALUE
  • Example:
export FLASK_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG=dev

Windows user should use set instead of export for setting these environment variables.
Another way to do this in flask applications is by having a file called .env which will have all of the environment variables. When a flask application runs, it will load these variables from the file.

  • Content of .env file:

FLASK_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG=dev
SECRET_KEY='some_random_key'
(...)

Database Environment Variables

To run the backend in other than local mode i.e prod or dev you need to export database environment variables. These are the required database environment variables.

export DB_TYPE=<database_type>
export DB_USERNAME=<database_username>
export DB_PASSWORD=<database_password>
export DB_ENDPOINT=<database_endpoint>
export DB_NAME=<database_name>

Database environment variables description

Environment Variable Description Example
DB_TYPE Type of database you want to use postgres, mysql
DB_USERNAME Username of the user through which you will be doing operations in database admin123
DB_PASSWORD Database password of the DB_USERNAME user mypwd123
DB_ENDPOINT Path to database or connection string connecting to database /path/to/database.db, remote-database-url:5432
DB_NAME Name of the database to which you want to connect mentorship