We operate a number of websites, all of which operate on the same server.

Currently, I am the only developer. But that is likely to change over the next 18 months or so. I'm making some changes that present the opportunity to make some improvements to the internal design and security of the sites. I'm looking for some input on the "best" way to do this. Any input welcome but especially around global site variables.

Currently we have this directory structure (plus a few others omitted for simplicity:

site/prod/bin/
site/prod/lib/
site/prod/template/
site/prod/www/
site/test/bin/
site/test/lib/
site/test/template/
site/test/www/

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Every site has identical code in prod and test (except for during development of course) except for one file site/lib/vars.pm which declares the site variables needed for that site and environment. Things like the DB credentials, the DB instance to connect to, Stripe keys, API keys, etc. 

use strict;
use warnings;

our $env_db_user     = 'dbusername';
our $env_db_pass     = 'dbpassword';

our $env_paypal      = 'PP username';

# etc, etc, etc

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There is no logic code in this module, it just defines variables with our. This module is used by a utility module that is used by every script on the website.

When we bring another developer onboard, I want to split the site variables into two - those they have access to (test database schema name, text Stripe keys, etc) and those they don't (live Stripe keys, database credentials, etc). I could relocate this file to further up the directory structure where they don't have access, but I feel sure there is a better way to handle this as it must be a common problem in multi-developer environments.

What I have works well and it not in need of imminent change. But I have opportunity to make it more robust as I am making other changes.

What advise can you give on this matter kind and wise Monks?

In reply to Holding site variables by Bod

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