This is more of a Compose Desktop Gradle-level question — How to include secrets (like API keys) in ...

# compose-desktop

[Vishnu Haridas]

This is more of a Compose Desktop Gradle-level question — How to include secrets (like API keys) in a Compose-Desktop project without committing to Git?

For example, we have buildConfigField() in build.gradle in Android projects, which generates the BuildConfig.java file, and that can be used during runtime.

Is there a similar approach in Compose Desktop projects so that I can add secrets as System Env variable (or even a git-ignored properties file) and don't have to commit it?

I added a question on StackOverflow just now: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71002334/compose-desktop-projects-how-to-include-api-keys-or-other-secrets-without-com

[spierce7]

answered on stackoverflow.

[Vishnu Haridas]

Both the plugins you suggested is exactly doing what I wanted. As you said, messing around with third-party plugin can be a problem, and let me wait and see if anyone has solved this without plugins.

The shell script is a good idea, but that has to be configured in Gradle to execute every time we do a build or run task, otherwise we have to run it manually.

[spierce7]

No - you would only run the shell script in CI. Whatever the contents of the file are initially should work for your dev experience

[spierce7]

i.e. your defaults could be to read the values from a file that isn’t checked into git.

[Vishnu Haridas]

Oh oh I get it now. So in my local machine, need to run it again only if I am switching to another set of secrets. That looks a good idea.

[Colton Idle]

I didn't read the SO question, but in general I think the same general rules apply. You can just put secrets in an environment variable and call it a day. There are some plugins and such that can help depending on the build system, but almost every project I've used just defaults to putting things in env vars.

[Vishnu Haridas]

Yes, I wanted to use environment variables, but didn't know how to bring them into the Kotlin sources during compile time. I used a plugin and it works like a charm👌 https://github.com/gmazzo/gradle-buildconfig-plugin

The Android Gradle Plugin comes with the buildConfig feature, so I was checking if there's a similar option comes built-in for Compose Desktop projects.