Environment Variables

Since Didact Engine is a build once, deploy anywhere application, you are intended to take the prebuilt binaries, use them as is, and modify their behavior only through the use of runtime environment variables.

Enginesettings.json

Namely, whatever root directory you run Didact Engine's executable file inside of, you need to add a special environment variable file called enginesettings.json. This file is quite similar to appsettings.json but is intended for you to set runtime environment variables as needed.

Separation of concerns

These runtime environment variables are for Didact Engine only. Didact UI has its own runtime environment variables.

The full template for enginesettings.json is shown below:

{
    "Database": {
        "Provider": "SQLServer",
        "ConnectionString": "<YOUR_CONNECTION_STRING_HERE>"
    },
    "EngineApiKey": "<YOUR_RANDOM_API_KEY_HERE>",
    "LicenseKey": "<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE>",
    "Directive": "Leader",
    "EngineTuningName": "Default",
}

However, feel free to read each field's corresponding doc section for more details.

Database.Provider

Descriptor	Value
Key	Database.Provider
Type	string
Description	Didact's database provider key.
Required	true
Default	SQLServer

The database provider names are shown below:

Provider Name	Provider Key	Status
SQL Server	SQLServer	Supported
Azure SQL Database	SQLServer	Supported
PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL	Planned

Database.ConnectionString

Descriptor	Value
Key	Database.ConnectionString
Type	string
Description	Didact's database connection string.
Required	true
Default	N/A

EngineApiKey

Descriptor	Value
Key	EngineApiKey
Type	string
Description	The API key that you generate to protect Didact Engine with authentication.
Required	false
Default	N/A

Danger close

Please be aware that if you omit this setting, your instance of Didact Engine will not have authentication.

LicenseKey

Descriptor	Value
Key	LicenseKey
Type	string
Description	The license key for your Didact paid plan.
Required	true for customers only
Default	N/A

For customers only

If you are not a Didact customer / only use the Community Edition, you can omit this field. If you are a Didact customer, make sure to include this license key or else your enhanced features may not be unlocked.

Directive

Descriptor	Value
Key	Directive
Type	string
Description	The Directive for Didact Engine.
Required	false
Default	Leader

The Directives are shown below:

Name
Leader
Worker

EngineTuningName

Descriptor	Value
Key	EngineTuningName
Type	string
Description	The name of the Engine Tuning for Didact Engine.
Required	false
Default	Default