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PHP Environment Variables with PHP Environment Variables Setting up the Project and Package

Posted by Uwem Uke
Uwem Uke
350 Points

Error outputting echo getenv('SECRET');

Following to the letter, instructions in the video to output "echo getenv('SECRET');", i am unable to resolve the following error:

Catchable fatal error: Argument 1 passed to Dotenv\Dotenv::__construct() must be an instance of Dotenv\Loader, string given, called in C:\xampp\htdocs\project\inc\bootstrap.php on line 3 and defined in C:\xampp\htdocs\project\vendor\vlucas\phpdotenv\src\Dotenv.php on line 31

Hope i can be pointed to what i'm missing here, thanks.

4 Answers

Uwem Uke
Uwem Uke
350 Points

Finally found the answer. As per documentation on latest upgrade from V2: "you will need to replace any occurrences of 'new Dotenv(...)' with 'Dotenv::create(...)'". Hope it helps another.

require DIR . '/../vendor/autoload.php';

//$dotenv = new Dotenv\Dotenv(DIR); //Old version

$dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::create(DIR); //New version as of date

$dotenv->load();

P.S. For reasons unknown, in this answer, the DIR keyword has been stripped of its double underscores(_ _) on both sides. It should be formatted accordingly.

Stef Lynn-Smith
Stef Lynn-Smith
16,868 Points

I couldn't get this to work with ::create but it works with ::createImmutable

$dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(DIR); $dotenv->load();

Chapman Cheng
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Chapman Cheng
PHP Development Techdegree Graduate 46,936 Points
Chapman Cheng
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Chapman Cheng
PHP Development Techdegree Graduate 46,936 Points

The package probably got updated again. the current usage as of July 2020 is 

$dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(__DIR__);
$dotenv->load();

make sure to check documentaion

jpizzle
jpizzle
36,395 Points
jpizzle
jpizzle
36,395 Points

If anyone is having trouble echo'ing out the SECRET environment variable, change Dotenv::createImmutable in the bootstrap file to Dotenv::createUnsafeImmutable

Found Here under "Putenv and Getenv" section: https://github.com/vlucas/phpdotenv#:~:text=PHP%20dotenv%20is%20a%20PHP,version%20of%20the%20original%20Ruby%20dotenv.

jamesjones21
jamesjones21
9,260 Points
jamesjones21
jamesjones21
9,260 Points

that basically means it needs to be an instance of the Dotenv\Loader class, so the variable you are sending into the getenv(); needs to be an object that uses the Dotenv\Loader class.

Uwem Uke
Uwem Uke
350 Points

Thank you jamesjones21. The variable in getenv(); comes from a .env file, which is explicitly called by the Dotenv\Dotenv class as per video instruction. However, nothing i have tried so far works, and i see phpdotenv has been updated since that video. I am not a code monkey, and this is not what i will pay for. Would have loved that the video instructions were updated to reflect current implementations. If you will, I'm sure you can replicate the issue if you follow the video. Thanks again.