Use YAML with variables

Question

Are variables within YAML files possible? For example:

theme:
  name: default
  css_path: compiled/themes/$theme.name
  layout_path: themes/$theme.name
         


        

Answer 1

After some search, I've found a cleaner solution wich use the % operator.

In your YAML file :

key : 'This is the foobar var : %{foobar}'

In your ruby code :

require 'yaml'

file = YAML.load_file('your_file.yml')

foobar = 'Hello World !'
content = file['key']
modified_content = content % { :foobar => foobar }

puts modified_content

And the output is :

This is the foobar var : Hello World !

---

As @jschorr said in the comment, you can also add multiple variable to the value in the Yaml file :

Yaml :

key : 'The foo var is %{foo} and the bar var is %{bar} !'

Ruby :

# ...
foo = 'FOO'
bar = 'BAR'
# ...
modified_content = content % { :foo => foo, :bar => bar }

Output :

The foo var is FOO and the bar var is BAR !