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).