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

Rails / ruby frameworks are able to do some templating ... it's frequently used to load env variables ...

# fooz.yml
  foo:
    bar: <%= $ENV[:some_var] %>

No idea if this works for javascript frameworks as I think that YML format is superset of json and it depends on what reads the yml file for you.

If you can use the template like that or the << >> or the {{ }} styles depending on your reader, after that you just ...

In another yml file ...

# boo.yml

development:
  fooz: foo

Which allows you to basically insert a variable as your reference that original file each time which is dynamically set. When reading I was also seeing you can create or open YML files as objects on the fly for several languages which allows you to create a file & chain write a series of YML files or just have them all statically pointing to the dynamically created one.