Configuration

• Introduction
  • The about Command
• Unsupported Recursive Config Resolution
• Environment Configuration
  • Environment Variable Types
  • Retrieving Environment Configuration
  • Determining the Current Environment
• Accessing Configuration Values
• Configuration Publishing
• Debug Mode

Introduction

All of the configuration files for the Hypervel framework are stored in the config directory. Each option is documented, so feel free to look through the files and get familiar with the options available to you.

These configuration files allow you to configure things like your database connection information, your mail server information, as well as various other core configuration values such as your application URL and encryption key.

The about Command

Hypervel can display an overview of your application's configuration, drivers, and environment via the about Artisan command.

php artisan about

If you're only interested in a particular section of the application overview output, you may filter for that section using the --only option:

php artisan about --only=environment

Or, to explore a specific configuration file's values in detail, you may use the config:show Artisan command:

php artisan config:show database

Unsupported Recursive Config Resolution

Since Hypervel initializes the Configuration service at a very early stage in the framework's underlying mechanism, which differs from Laravel, the related configs are loaded into the framework at an extremely early phase.

At this point, Config Instance is not ready while reading config files. This means you shouldn't refer to other config values in the config files.

For example, you will get errors with the following config declaration:

return [
    'foo' => config('bar.title'),
];

Warning

Some special config files will be loaded by Hypervel before the app container is ready, such as config/app.php, config/dependencies.php, config/annotations.php. You shouldn't call any functions that will require app container in these config files.

Environment Configuration

It is often helpful to have different configuration values based on the environment where the application is running. For example, you may wish to use a different cache driver locally than you do on your production server.

To make this a cinch, Hypervel utilizes the DotEnv PHP library. In a fresh Hypervel installation, the root directory of your application will contain a .env.example file that defines many common environment variables. During the Hypervel installation process, this file will automatically be copied to .env.

Hypervel's default .env file contains some common configuration values that may differ based on whether your application is running locally or on a production web server. These values are then read by the configuration files within the config directory using Hypervel's env function.

If you are developing with a team, you may wish to continue including and updating the .env.example file with your application. By putting placeholder values in the example configuration file, other developers on your team can clearly see which environment variables are needed to run your application.

Note

Any variable in your .env file can be overridden by external environment variables such as server-level or system-level environment variables.

Environment File Security

Your .env file should not be committed to your application's source control, since each developer / server using your application could require a different environment configuration. Furthermore, this would be a security risk in the event an intruder gains access to your source control repository, since any sensitive credentials would get exposed.

Environment Variable Types

All variables in your .env files are typically parsed as strings, so some reserved values have been created to allow you to return a wider range of types from the env() function:

.env Value	env() Value
true	(bool) true
(true)	(bool) true
false	(bool) false
(false)	(bool) false
empty	(string) ''
(empty)	(string) ''
null	(null) null
(null)	(null) null

If you need to define an environment variable with a value that contains spaces, you may do so by enclosing the value in double quotes:

APP_NAME="My Application"

Retrieving Environment Configuration

You can use the env function to retrieve values from these variables in your configuration files. In fact, if you review the Hypervel configuration files, you will notice many of the options are already using this function:

'debug' => env('APP_DEBUG', false),

The second value passed to the env function is the "default value". This value will be returned if no environment variable exists for the given key.

Determining the Current Environment

The current application environment is determined via the APP_ENV variable from your .env file. You may access this value via the environment method on the App facade:

use Hypervel\Support\Facades\App;

$environment = App::environment();

You may also pass arguments to the environment method to determine if the environment matches a given value. The method will return true if the environment matches any of the given values:

if (App::environment('local')) {
    // The environment is local
}

if (App::environment(['local', 'staging'])) {
    // The environment is either local OR staging...
}

Note

The current application environment detection can be overridden by defining a server-level APP_ENV environment variable.

Accessing Configuration Values

You may easily access your configuration values using the Config facade or global config function from anywhere in your application. The configuration values may be accessed using "dot" syntax, which includes the name of the file and option you wish to access. A default value may also be specified and will be returned if the configuration option does not exist:

use Hypervel\Support\Facades\Config;

$value = Config::get('app.timezone');

$value = config('app.timezone');

// Retrieve a default value if the configuration value does not exist...
$value = config('app.timezone', 'Asia/Seoul');

To set configuration values at runtime, you may invoke the Config facade's set method or pass an array to the config function:

Config::set('app.timezone', 'America/Chicago');

config(['app.timezone' => 'America/Chicago']);

To assist with static analysis, the Config facade also provides typed configuration retrieval methods. If the retrieved configuration value does not match the expected type, an exception will be thrown:

Config::string('config-key');
Config::integer('config-key');
Config::float('config-key');
Config::boolean('config-key');
Config::array('config-key');

Configuration Publishing

Most of Hypervel's configuration files are already published in your application's config directory; however, certain configuration files like cors.php and view.php are not published by default, as most applications will never need to modify them.

However, you may use the vendor:publish Artisan command to publish packages' assets including configuration files that are not published by default:

php artisan vendor:publish package

php artisan vendor:publish --all

Debug Mode

The debug option in your config/app.php configuration file determines how much information about an error is actually displayed to the user. By default, this option is set to respect the value of the APP_DEBUG environment variable, which is stored in your .env file.

Warning

For local development, you should set the APP_DEBUG environment variable to true. In your production environment, this value should always be false. If the variable is set to true in production, you risk exposing sensitive configuration values to your application's end users.