Chef error on attributes- string not matched - ruby

Question

I cannot seem to get around a chef error that deals with similarly named attributes in my attributes/default.rb file.
I have 2 attributes:
default['test']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd'] = 'password'
...
...
default['test']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd']['type'] = 'encrypted'
Notice that, up until the last bracket (['type']), the names are identical.
I am referencing these attributes in a template and in a template block in the recipe. When I go to run it, I receive this error:
==================================================[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.668692 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
[31mRecipe Compile Error
in /tmp/kitchen/cache/cookbooks/avx/attributes/default.rb[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.669192 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
=================================================================[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.669192 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.669692 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
[0mIndexError[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.669692 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65: -------
--[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.669692 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65: string not matched[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.670192 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.670192 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
[0mCookbook Trace:[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:36:43.670692 #7920] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65: --------[0m
I, [2015-01-28T13:46:05.101875 #8332] INFO -- core-14-2-centos-65:
[0m113>> default['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd']['type'] =
'encrypted'
It seems as if Chef cannot distinguish between 2 attributes when the only differentiation is the ending.
If I modify the same attributes by placing some unique text at the front of the name, there is not issue with the recipe at all:
default['test']['1']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd'] = 'password'
...
...
default['test']['2']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd']['type'] = 'encrypted'
By putting the ['1'] and ['2'] there, it solves the problem.
I am fairly new to Chef so I'm thinking its just something simple I'm overlooking. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

Simple answer: You cannot do this. That's not a Chef problem, nor a ruby problem - it's a general problem of like most programming languages.
Let's use foo as a variable instead of the lengthy default['test']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd'].
What you effectively do is
1: foo = "password"
2: foo['type'] = "encrypted"
In line 1, foo is a string. In line 2, it is treated as hash (called array in some other languages). The second line automatically overwrites your foo = "password" assignment. It's effectively the same as
1: foo = "password"
2: foo = {}
3: foo['type'] = "encrypted"
The alternative would be to use
foo['something'] = "password"
foo['type'] = "encrypted"
Or translated to your code:
default['test']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd']['something'] = 'password'
default['test']['webservice']['https']['keyManagerPwd']['type'] = 'encrypted'
This should work.