Looking for Gitlab feature as Circle CI context - gitlab

Question

In Circle CI, context can allow me to set different values for same variables.
For example, I set two environments, such as dev and prod, in each of them, I set several variables
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
Since my environments are in different aws accounts, I can provide the different values to them.
Second, I can set permission that developers can only access dev context, support team can only access prod context.
But I don't get the same feature in Gitlab CI.
In one of their document, it mentions Group, but after I check, it doesn't work as expect at all.
https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/migration/circleci.html#contexts-and-variables
Contexts and variables
CircleCI provides Contexts to securely pass environment variables across project pipelines. In GitLab, a Group can be created to assemble related projects together. At the group level, CI/CD variables can be stored outside the individual projects, and securely passed into pipelines across multiple projects.
Are there any way I can do that in Gitlab CI?
Sample usage of context in Circli CI for your reference
version: 2.1
workflows:
staging-workflow:
jobs:
- staging-build:
context:
- staging
prod-workflow:
jobs:
- prod-build:
context:
- prod

Answer 1

I think you could achieve something similar by utilising gitlabs schedules.
Simply create two schedules that contain the variables you want to pass.
Update your ci script to reference these variables.
Then each schedule can be owned by the respective parties.
You can also limit variables by group, based on which environment. So if you have a dev env - variables can be limited for that and the same for a prod env. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Finally I got this problem fixed with Gitlab CI enviroments
set environments Staging and Produciton
when it asks for url, ignore the issue, put any url you like, I just put http://example.com .
still not sure the proper url I need put in.
update your variables in cicd, default is to all, change it to staging or Production.
Setting -> CICD -> Variables -> Expand
in the screenshot, I set variable AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID two times, but assigned to different environments.
(Notes: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID doesn't need be masked, but AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY should be)
update your pipeline to use the enviroment.
the gitlab ci environment document above confuse me again. you don't have to provide the url, just add the environment name is enough.
staging_deploy:
stage: deploy
environment:
name: staging
when: manual
script:
- echo "staging deployment"