dotenv VS Stimulus

This is the second part of my Test Driving a Rails API series. In Part 1 we set up our development environment, generated a Rails API-only application, installed dotenv to easily store configuration values in the environment, and installed and configured PostgreSQL version 16 as our database.

Storing environment variables for a Rails app can be problematic. The dotenv gem will automatically, when Rails boots, load environment variables from .env files into the Rails ENV. This is a great way to store private information that varies per developer or deployment environment, such as your development database configuration. Rails Encrypted Credentials is a great way to store private information, like API keys, etc, but I wouldn’t use it for storing my local development environment’s database information. The Encrypted Credentials file is checked into the git repository and would, therefore, be shared by all developers on the project. dotenv allows each developer or deployment environment to store their own information in .env files that are ignored by git.

dotenv

Install the dotenv gem.

dotenv-rails

Yeah, now that I think of it, it does require a gem. I have used this in most projects https://github.com/bkeepers/dotenv

I also recommend checking out the docs for Stimulus and Turbo to familiarise yourself with all their features and the APIs used in this series.

Any tips on preparing to work with Wiz as an incoming intern. I heard its identical to Stimulus: https://stimulus.hotwired.dev/

use Stimulus

With Stimulus, you've got a powerful tool to take your app's interactivity up a notch. For even more awesome features and Stimulus wizardry, check out the Stimulus Documentation.

The next version of Stimulus makes it easier to access parts of the private API thanks to my pull request.

I like Stimulus, it was a bit pushed by Symfony with their ux thing.

I thought it'd be https://stimulus.hotwired.dev/ for a minute but I think that ecosystem is tied too closely with rails.

Hey HN!

For those new to Rails, Stimulus (https://stimulus.hotwired.dev/) is a way to sprinkle frontend javascript code into your Rails views.

I held off using Stimulus in my Rails apps for a long time because I didn't understand it — the data= attributes looked weird, and the connection between my Rails views and Stimulus javascript controllers was confusing.

So I decided to write the guide I wish I had when I was learning Stimulus.

Hope you enjoy it! I'm happy to answer any questions, feel free to ask any.

Thanks, Harrison

Hey /r/rails, these past few weeks, I've been working on a beginner's guide to Stimulus and I'm excited to finally share it!