CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythondjangowindowsherokuenvironment-variables
Youssof
Youssof

Reputation: 1001

Heroku Python Local Environment Variables

Working on a heroku django project.

Goal: I want to run the server locally with same code on cloud too (makes sense).

Problem: Environments differ from a linux server (heroku) to a local PC windows system. Local environment variables differ from cloud Heroku config vars. Heroku config vars can be setup easily using the CLI heroku config:set TIMES=2.

While setting up local env vars is a total mess.

I tried the following in cmd: py -c "import os;os.environ['Times']=2" # To set an env var

Then ran py -c "import os;os.environ.get('Times','Not Found')" stdout: "Not Found".

After a bit of research it appeared to be that such env vars are stored temporarily per process/session usage.

Solution theory: Redirect os.environ to .env file of the root heroku project instead of the PC env vars. So I found this tool direnv perfect for Unix-like OSs but not available for Windows.

views.py code (runs perfect on cloud, sick on the local machine):

import os
import requests
from django.shortcuts import render
from django.http import HttpResponse
from .models import Greeting

def index(request):
    # get method takes 2 parameters (env_var_string,return value if var is not found)
    times = int(os.environ.get('TIMES',3))

    return HttpResponse('<p>'+ 'Hello! ' * times+ '</p>')

def db(request):
    greeting = Greeting()
    greeting.save()
    greetings = Greeting.objects.all()
    return render(request, "db.html", {"greetings": greetings})

Main Question: Is there a proper way to hide secrets locally in windows and access them by os.environ['KEY']?

Another solution theory: I was wondering if a python virtual environment has it's own environment variables. If yes i activate a venv locally without affecting the cloud. Therefore os.environ['KEY'] is redirected to the venv variables. Again it's just a theory.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1086

Answers (1)

Beppe C
Beppe C

Reputation: 13923

You can use environment variables which you can get via os.environ['KEY'].
The same code will work on both local development and on Heroku.

On Heroku define these variables using ConfigVars heroku config:set KEY=val while locally (on Windows for example) define the same variables in an .env file (use dotenv to load them). The .env file is never committed with the source code.

Upvotes: 4

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