Help linking my bot to the planet scale db

[rare shell]

I'm really needing help to get this done by the second please 🙏
@craggy nebula

[craggy nebula]

Do you have a GH repo that you can share?

[rare shell]

I'm so sorry, what's a gh repo?

Oh ok github. I don't think I do

[craggy nebula]

What have you tried so far?

[rare shell]

I've just read up on how I should go about moving it and gotten super confused and frustrated

[craggy nebula]

What programming language are you using for your bot? And what are you trying to achieve with it?

[rare shell]

I'm using JavaScript I do believe. I'm pretty sure autocode doesn't use it's own language. It's a discord bot that moderates and alot of other things. I think that was what you were asking

[rare shell]

I know I'ma sound hella stupid rn but idk alot about coding and tech. I just learned the basics to build what I wanted to build and parroted it w/o truly understanding how it works

I don't have the needed in depth understanding of how code speaks to my bot to tell it what to do

I can understand the very basics like calling a dep that tells the bot to "do this" or "retrieve that" but that's about as deep as it goes

[craggy nebula]

ok, so there is some ground to cover if you want to get this working. First, have you found any documentation on how to connect your bot to a database AND which database is recommended?

[rare shell]

I've not really. I thought I had but turns out planet scale isn't what I need bc it's just a db and not a hosting server

[craggy nebula]

It's technically a hosted DB. However it looks like autocode is more or less a hosting server, and you could connect to planetscale with a DB connector and the connection string Planetscale would provide. DO NOT hardcode that connection string though, you need to use secrets and environment variables to keep it secure.

[rare shell]

Ok so I could link my bot and they would host it?

[craggy nebula]

Planetscale can host your data. Autocode is hosting our bot.

[rare shell]

I couldn't hard code something to something with a gun to my head.

[rare shell]

Ok right so yeah I need a new host bc aurocodes a rip off since the last price change/hike

[craggy nebula]

hard coding means putting the connection string directly in the javascript code.

[rare shell]

Oh I think I get it. Pretty sure that's what they wanted me to do using this invite and inserting it into my bots .env file

[craggy nebula]

yes

[rare shell]

Ah, yeah I don't want that then

[craggy nebula]

That is how you would do it. ??

[rare shell]

Oh. So I could still use secrets and env ver ?

[craggy nebula]

yeah, you get your connection string from Planetscale, and that will go in the .env file. Then inside the bot you use the secrets API to access that connection string. That makes the string a) secure - the app only sees it when it's running, and b) flexible - you can change the connection string in .env at any time, restart the app, and it's pointed to a new database or using an updated password, etc. --- WITHOUT having to change any application code.

If you aren't familiar with this, I highly recommend getting acquainted with the concepts behind all of this. It will give you a foundation to understand exactly what's going one.

[rare shell]

This sounds like exactly what I want to do but you lost me towards the end.
When I try to put that string into the .env file it says the files read only

And everything after that just scrambled my eggs

[craggy nebula]

This is the link they provide for environment variables https://docs.autocode.com/projects/environment-variables/

AND it's not helpful.

[rare shell]

Nah, that wasn't helpful lol. I appreciate your help but this is just getting me more and more confused and I feel like I'm starting to be a nuisance so I'll just lay it down for now and eventually I'll get it figured out. I'm sorry for wasting your time but I did get one step closer by confirming that I will want to use that string to do what I'm trying to do. 🙏🙏