/docs/deploymentconfig.txt

Deployment Configuration
========================

Sometimes applications require deployment-specific configuration.
Silver Lining has a few settings/tools to help with this.

An application's configuration is just a directory that contains any
configuration file or files that are appropriate.  To deploy an
application with particular configuration, use::

    $ silver update app-path/ --config config-path/

This uploads ``config-path/`` and on the server
``environ['SILVER_APP_CONFIG']`` will be set to this directory.  You
can also use ``--config`` with ``silver serve`` to try out a
configuration locally.

If you upload configuration on a server it will stay on a server until
you update again with ``--config``.

app.ini configuration
---------------------

If you want to require configuration, you can place this in your
``app.ini``::

    config.required = true

Also if you want to check the configuration before deploying an
application, you can use::

    config.checker = myapp.somemodule:checker

Then ``myapp.somemodule`` will be imported, and
``checker(config_dir)`` will be called.  It should raise an exception
if there is an error with the configuration.

You can also give a default configuration.  This is particularly
useful during development.

::

    config.default = src/myapp/default-config/

Config Templates
----------------

Lastly you can help people create configuration for your application
using a config template.  To enable a template, use the setting::

    config.template = src/myapp/config-template/

This is a directory that will be copied when you run::

    $ silver create-config app-path/ new-config-path/

If you want to ask some questions, you can add a file in
``src/myapp/config-template/template.ini`` and in it::

    [variables]
    title = The Title Of The Application
    author = Your Name

Each variable is a variable the user will be asked about, and the
value is the description of the variable.  In the future probably
other options for variables will be allowed, but this is all there is
now.

Then you need to make some files templates by adding the extension
``.tmpl``, these will be `Tempita <http://pythonpaste.org/tempita/>`_
templates.  So you can do something like create ``config.ini.tmpl``
and put in::

    [blog]
    title = {{title}}
    author = {{author}}

Interactively Configured Applications
-------------------------------------

If you want to make a nice interactive configuration (similar to how
WordPress works, for instance) then you don't want to use any of
this.  Simply use ``service.files`` and put your configuration
someplace like ``os.path.join(os.environ['CONFIG_FILES'], 'config')``