Deploying your App - Build Time

[PascalSenn]

Build Time

When building your application's configuration, Confix provides the confix build command to replace the variables in your configuration files with their actual values. Confix calls the variable providers to resolve these variables. You can specify the desired environment for your build by using the --environment flag.

This strategy is particularly useful when you wish to create configuration files and deploy them directly to a web app or web server.

⚠️ Caution for Container Deployment:
If you intend to deploy your application within a container, take extra precaution with this approach. It is important to first encrypt the configuration files using a public key, and then decrypt them at runtime within the container. If you not do this means your container image will contain plaintext secrets, which could be accessed by anyone with access to the container image.

Pros:

1. Easy setup: The confix build command and the --environment flag are straightforward to use and it may be enough for your application's needs
2. Consistent variables across deployments: If you need to rollback a deployment, the variables remain the same as the last time you deployed the app.

Cons:

1. Need for encryption in containers: When deploying your application within a container, you need to encrypt your configuration files to prevent exposing secrets in the container image.
2. You need different container images for different environments: If you need to deploy your application to multiple environments, you need to build a separate container image for each environment.