Include an .env feature for dab.config.json file

[glaucia86]

Hi!

I would like to propose that we can make use of the .env file in the dab.config.json file.
As it already happens with the files generated by the SWA CLI: staticwebapp.database.config.json (example: HERE)

Because the connection string is very exposed, where it has extremely sensitive data such as: login, password and database name.

[Aniruddh25]

Hi @glaucia86!
Thats a very good suggestion - in fact we support it already - the documentation needs to reflect this better. Here is the link on how to specify any value with an @env('ENV_NAME') - https://github.com/Azure/data-api-builder/blob/main/docs/configuration-file.md#accessing-environment-variables

Both dab-config.json and staticwebapp.database.config.json adhere to the same json config schema and are infact processed by the same dab service under the hood. So, you can provide the exact same contents in both the config files and they will be processed in the same way. In other words, they are just different names to the same config file based on the context you are using dab in.

Thanks,
Aniruddh!

[Aniruddh25]

I understand that setting environment variables at the user/system level is not possible for some users.
Ability to merge multiple config files as per #722 could solve the .env issue as well. We are still looking if #722 can be unblocked (fyi: @abhishekkumams). We can revisit this discussion once that evaluation is complete.

If #722 indeed is not possible, then we can look into using dotenv.net to read from a separate .env file - this might be useful for non-SWA users too.

[aaronpowell]

I'd actually love to revisit the config loading entirely and see if we can port it across to the standard .NET config system so that we don't have to build our parser.

[yorek]

I'm all in for supporting .env files. What I would like to have, ideally is

• support for configuration files like .NET does (so one can have multiple configuration files for each environment, and they are merged together as described here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/configuration/?view=aspnetcore-7.0#appsettingsjson
• support for .env so that I can just put my sensitive data into the .env, if I don't need the complexity of having multiple configuration files.

By supporting both we'll be friendly both to MS (used to configuration files) and non-MS devs (used to .env)

[Aniruddh25]

Created this to track:

• Add support for providing environment var/values in a .env file read by dotenv.net #1374

[Aniruddh25]

This feature has been implemented and available in 0.8.44-rc

[Aniruddh25]

This feature has been implemented and available in 0.8.44-rc