Environment-specific database configuration

Configure database connections differently based on the environment. Use lightweight file-based databases like SQLite for development and testing, but deploy robust server-based databases like PostgreSQL in production. This approach simplifies local development while ensuring your application has appropriate scalability and reliability in production.

import os
from sqlalchemy import create_engine

# Get environment from configuration
environment = os.getenv('APP_ENV', 'development')

# Configure database based on environment
if environment == 'development':
    # SQLite for local development
    DATABASE_URL = "sqlite:///./app.db"
elif environment == 'testing':
    # In-memory SQLite for testing
    DATABASE_URL = "sqlite:///./test.db"
else:
    # PostgreSQL for production
    DATABASE_URL = f"postgresql://{user}:{password}@{host}/{db_name}"

# Create engine with appropriate configurations
engine = create_engine(
    DATABASE_URL,
    # Add production-specific settings like connection pooling
    pool_size=5 if environment == 'production' else 0,
    max_overflow=10 if environment == 'production' else 0
)

This pattern ensures developers can work efficiently with lightweight database setups while maintaining robust configurations for production environments. Remember to properly manage the engine object throughout your application as it maintains database connections. For production applications, consider additional settings like connection pooling, timeouts, and SSL configurations appropriate for your specific database provider.