.env

This file contains the environmental variables that are used throughout the application. The library used for the env handlig is vlucas PHP dotenv. The file is located at the project root and is loaded via the ~/config/dotenv.php file.

Beets PHP comes with an example file named .env.example that you can modify to your needs.

You can get more detailed descriptions and more functionality by visiting vlucas's GitHub.

APP_NAME="My App"
APP_DESCRIPTION="This is my app"
APP_ID=1
APP_ENV=development
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://myapp.local
APP_COPYRIGHT="The Owner"

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=dbname
DB_CHARSET=utf8mb4
DB_USERNAME=username
DB_PASSWORD=password

CSRF_SECRET_KEY=secretkey

EMAIL_SENDER=noreply@example.com

.gitignore

Since this file can contain secrets as API credentials, password, internal paths, etc it should never be part of version control. Add the file to your .gitignore file.

Variables

Nesting

You can nest your env variables to reduce repeated values, like so:

APP_SLUG="myapp"
APP_URL=http://${APP_SLUG}.com

Read more on vlucas's GitHub.

APP_

The APP_* variables can be used to store values that are app specific and not related to data or content. For instance the applications name, url or author.

DB_

The DB_* variables are used within the Database.php class that handles your database requests so changing these variable names can break things.

Every DB_* variable except DB_CHARSET is required to exist in the file as configured in the ~/config/dotenv.php file.

Usage

You can access your env variables uwing the $_ENV or $_SERVER super globals:

$appName = $_ENV['APP_NAME'];
$appName = $_SERVER['APP_NAME'];

echo $appName; // My App

Using them publicly can ba a safety issue though, so every env variable is defined as a constant in the ~/config/config.php file. If you add custom env variables, make sure to add them to the config file.

echo APP_NAME; // My App

Environment

You can set the appllication environment with the variable APP_ENV. By default it is set to development but when you deploy you application to production, make sure to set it to production. These variables can be used to change the application behaviour, style or functionality depending on its location. There are also a env() helper function that you can use to get the set environment.

You can read mor on how to use the environment variable on the Deploy page.

APP_ENV=development

if (env('development')) {
    // Development functionality
}

if (env('production')) {
    // Production functionality
}

echo env(); // developemnt

Along the env() function is the debug() function that retrieves the APP_DEBUG env variable and translates it into a boolean. Use this to toggle functionality that should only be used for debugging.

APP_DEBUG=true

if (debug()) {
    // Debug funtionality
}