Why config db table over config.json or other static file?

zaksoup

I've successfully deployed a flarum instance to a DigitalOcean droplet and configured SMTP, but the process seems a little strange. For certain configuration properties it seems like a config.json (or other format) static file might make more sense, even once a WEB UI is available. Operators of Flarum have varying levels of skill and it is quite the gateway to require a crafted SQL insert in order to configure external SMTP emailing.

I'm curious as to why this design decision was made and am wondering if a discussion of different ways of saving configuration settings might be useful.

luceos

Thanks for sharing your worries.

The reason mail settings aren't yet configurable from the admin is because flarum is still beta.

As to your question of the format of storing such settings, you've already provided the answer. Users of different experience levels will be using flarum. Therefore the development team is providing the easiest way possible, an admin interface.

I'd also like to point out that to you an insert or update query in the database might be difficult, for a lot of people editing json might be too.

zaksoup

luceos That's reasonable that currently beta flarum simply doesn't have the admin interface. The reason this issue came up is I'm working on some scripts to do an automated deploy of Flarum and the design of "All initial setup is run through an admin web interface and then seeded in the database" means that automated deploys before the DB is seeded require a script to actually set up those seeds (or worse, load the webUI and submit the forms in some automated way).

I don't want to drop the config table entirely because as the need for more than one instance arises it's good that they can all draw their config from the database. What would be nice is the ability to pass a configuration static file with the necessary properties to seed the db for initial setup in order to skip the webUI entirely.

As far as operators of varying skill level, at a certain point an operator might want to be able to provision new instances without ever using the web installer.

Thanks for your quick reply and for indulging me

Kulga

zaksoup The reason this issue came up is I'm working on some scripts to do an automated deploy of Flarum

There was the option for console based installs

php flarum/flarum install

but that doesn’t seem available anymore :\
Plus I couldn't figure out a way to provide user defined variables.

There was a pull request to define it by environmental variables but it doesn't look like it panned out..

luceos

zaksoup an automated installation is peanuts.. I'm not sure why running some scripts after installation to set some table values is so hard? You seem to be trying to solve an issue, where there is none.

zaksoup

Kulga that pull request looks like exactly what I want. I’ll look into a similar solution and maybe submit a PR of my own.