Configuration: audit, clean, extend & improve

As the refactor of config is done, and we’ve had a chance to use it for a little while, it would be good to revisit it again before the end of alpha. There are a couple of outstanding todos from #6982 plus I’d like to look at what config options we provide. Do they make sense? Are there some things which should not be config? Some things which should be and aren’t?

Things that definitely need review/audit:

• IMPORTANT: reconsider new config options from https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/7929⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ - [ ] our use of paths in overrides.json need’s more context - [ ] revisit paths like /ghost/ and /ghost/api/<verison> need’s more context
• our use of the url and related config options like forceAdminSSL (+ redirect option).
  • Required: support for adminUrl like we use on Ghost(Pro)
  • Drop handling on Ghost(Pro)
• should route keywords be configuration? See https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/8492
• configuration options for caching (raised in #7273)
• documentation & implementation of compress config differs (docs say compress implementation looks for server.compress).
• imageRelPath https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/master/core/server/config/utils.js#L19
• revisit all checks against config.get(‘env’) and see if they can be moved to configuration E.g. https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/7544/files

~- [ ] catch the error thrown from nconf, and rethrow it in a prettyier, clearer, more Ghost-like~ fashion (see https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/7488#issuecomment-276090407):

/Users/hannah/Ghost/node_modules/nconf/lib/nconf/stores/file.js:160
    throw new Error("Error parsing your configuration file: [" + this.file + ']: ' + ex.message);
    ^

Error: Error parsing your configuration file: [/Users/hannah/Ghost/config.development.json]: Unexpected token d
...

Anyone who has something else they’d like reconsidered, please add a comment!

TODOs from #6982:

• revisit the use of keys with nconf’s .file()
• remove the default database config, add client to the config.development.json file

TODO’s from #7692

• remove config.set('theme:…`), look at the TODO written in the PR

Issue fixes

• https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/7500
• https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/issues/7492

[ErisDS]

Couple of notes / thoughts as I’m moving around:

• reconsider: in overrides.json, times key needs to be changed to something like scheduling as it is part of that aspect of Ghost.
• minifyAssets needs revisiting as it is doesn’t do anything really
• internalApps should possibly be apps.internal?
• think about content paths:
  • I would like to make it possible at some point soon (not necessarily for 1.0) to change the path for where themes are stored - this would be the only available customisation, no adapters. we will keep it in mind
  • I would like adapters to all live in /content/adapters by default, rather than having separate folders.

[kirrg001]

👍 Thank you!

I agree to the custom theme and image paths. We can add this later as a none breaking change and support both notations. You either specify a contentPath or override the content path by e.g. contentImagePath - if only one option is specified, it’s possible to detect that.