Environment variable in Rails console and Pow

Question

I can't access env variables in the Rails console, while in the application they work.

In .powenv I have export SENDGRID_PASSWORD="123"

In config/initializers/mail.rb there is:

ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
  :password => ENV['SENDGRID_PASSWORD']
}

So in the console when I type UserMailer.welcome_mail.deliver there is an error 'ArgumentError: SMTP-AUTH requested but missing secret phrase'. However from the application it sends the mail successfully.

How can I make the env variables available in the console?

Answer 1

Your Rails console isn't able to access the environment variable because Pow passes information from the .powenv or .powrc file into Rails ... Rails doesn't read those files on its own.

In other words, you're setting the ENV['SENDGRID_PASSWORD'] variable in the .powenv file, but that file is not being touched when you start the Rails console.

You'll need to set up a before_filter in your Application Controller that sets the ENV['SENDGRID_PASSWORD'] (or come up with another, similar, way of reading in the .powenv file from within that before_filter in your Rails app).