Updating Environment Variables
Environment Variables are the recommended way of storing hardcoded values. You can set different values to each Environment and Processes will change the value used depending on which Environment the Agent Group running the Process is in. The values can be updated without having to create and deploy new versions of Processes.
Environment Variables are also the recommended way of storing different credentials, since you can define an Environment Variable as secret. This way the credentials will not be logged. After you have set the Environment Variable value to secret, it is not possible to check the value, since Frends doesn't give any information about the value set to the Environment Variable. However, you are able to check if a value is set for the Environment Variable or not. If a value is not set, the text field will say "Not set". If a value is set, then the field shows "********".
You can also check how an Environment Variable value has changed from the changelog. This will give you information about how the value has changed, when it was changed and who has made changes. For secret Environment Variables you are not able to see how the value has changed.
You can also check which Processes are currently using the Environment Variable in each of the Environments.
Things to consider when updating Environment Variables
As said previously, when you change values of Environment Variables, Processes will start to use the new value immediately without having to create a new version of a Process. This makes it easy to mess things up if you don't know how the change will affect Processes in an Agent Group which is in the Environment of the Environment Variable value you changed. Before making changes to Environment Variables, you should check which Processes are using the Environment Variable and how those Processes are using it.
When you update secret Environment Variables you should be aware that it is not possible to find out what value was used previously after you make a change. Hence, if for example new credentials do not work, it is not possible to rollback to previous credentials. You are able to set secret Environment Variables so you can securely use credentials in Processes, but Frends is not a place to store credentials. You should always store and document your credentials somewhere, so you can find the values stored in secret Environment Variables.
The next article is the beginning of the Special Use Cases course Introduction to EDIFACT