Environments can be passed through the global envs using the envs key in the pipeline. envs is an object that can contain key value pairs.

How to pass envs

Envs can be passed using the envs key in the following way:

Copy 
envs:
  - testKey: test value

These envs will be exposed through the context to the user. These envs can be accessed in a custom script using context.envs field. envs will be an object that will contain the values passed when the pipeline was created.

Are inputs alternative to envs?

Inputs are not an alternative to environments. Instead inputs can be thought of as parameters to a function whereas envs are just environments which are set once and accessed multiple times.

Inputs should be used when the data is directly accessed by the stage. Inputs are used in the case of pre-built stages that expect certain values from the user.

On the other hand, custom stages that run JS scripts might need certain values to be passed from the user. In this case, envs can be used.

Another important thing to note is, envs should be used when there is a value that might be sensitive to just pass or keep in code.

Environment values provided by ReactiveSearch

There are certain values that the pipeline cannot access but would be necessary for it's execution. Hence, we provide these values as environment variables. The values are generated during the initialization of the context and then passed on to every stage.

Following is the structure that indicates the environment values present in a pipeline:

Copy 
{
  "category": "docs",
  "acl": "bulk",
  "ipv6": "::1",
  "ipv4": "0.0.0.0",
  "isTLS": false,
  "method": "GET",
  "origin": "localhost:8000",
  "path": "/basic-envs/_reactivesearch",
  "query": "harry",
  "referrer": "https://my-search.domain.com/path?q=hello",
  "urlValues": {"q": "test"},
  "index": []
}

Above values are summarized in the following table:

Name Description Type
category Category of ReactiveSearch defined for the path String
acl ACL for the path matched if defined in the pipeline String
ipv6 The ipv6 address of the host that is serving the API String
ipv4 The ipv4 address of the host that is serving the API String
isTLS Whether or not TLS is enabled Boolean
method Method of the current request String
origin Origin passed in the request String
path Path matched for the current request String
query The value field from the first query in the query array in the request, if passed String
referrer The referrer passed in the request header String
urlValues Query Parameters passed in the request Object
index Index matched in the request, if matched Array

Global Envs

Global environments are injected into the context.envs object, however the user passed values are given priority over the global envs.

Eg: If USER_INDEX is present in the envs and there is a global env with the key USER_INDEX then the value will not be replaced in the context.envs object.