I must admit I haven't been able to get "into" Postman. It looks pretty when I have tried but for some reason it doesn't "gel" with me as being something usefull I can use. It doesn't seem to address any problem I have. It just seems to let you interact with an API without cutting any code. With regard to Python and node.js I've been thinking mostly about solutions around dotenv (since it is available for both platforms, widely deployed and well respected). The idea I'm starting to settle on the most is using two calls to dotenv. One to retrieve a "global" environment file from the users home directory (such as .meraki.env) and one from the project directory. The idea being the home directory file can store settings for the global use across all of projects, such as credentials. I like the idea of storing credentials completely outside of the project directory as it would stop accidents happening, and it means common things like credentals can be used across all projects. The idea of a second call to dotenv to load a project file means you can retrieve config related to just that project. Effectively this would allow a global configuration with a per project override. I like th idea of being able to having environment based parameters because you can esaily feed them into serverless environments like Amazon AWS Lamba with no code changes. One idea I am still chewing over; I think it would be nice to be able to load a set of parameters based on an environment variable itself. This would allow for handling the "switching" of envionments, such as between test and production. So perhaps the project based settings file to be used could be specified by an environment file itself. So a flow something like: if exists env.MERAKI_CONFIG dotenv.config(env.MERAKI_CONFIG) else dotenv.config((). dotenv.config(HOME_DIRECTORY+".meraki.env") So now you can set the environment variable MERAKI_CONFIG to something like "test.env", "production.env", etc to make your app switch between different settings, as well as pull a global environment setting, and all with minimal lines of code being added to the app - and zero code changes are required when you switch environments. How does Postman store these variables? Can it store/load them in a compatible fashion with dotenv (which would be super usefull)? Postman seems to use json a lot. I have moved away from the idea of using json for config where possible after doing a lot of reading on Google and people's horror stories with trying to modify their config files and how easy it was to accidentaly break things. The other idea I like is using old school ini files, because of the abilities to have sections. I like the idea of being able ot have a "test" or "production" section, or a "meraki" and "mysql" section. It's also nice to be able to have comments in the ini file. But its hard to go past the simplicity of the dotenv name=value system. I joined the "Early access program" when it was first announced. I have not heard anything. Is the program actually active or when do you think it will become active?
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