Uniform access on complex variables

[Thomas Steinbach]

I used to define variables in the following way:

---
mysql:
  config:
    bind_address: 127.0.0.1
  root:
    password: ''
    remote_access: absent

This style of writing is appealing to read and non repititive. Inside the artifacts of the role I can reference such variables like {{ mysql.root.password }}. However I am not able to override those variables by referencing them the same way from other roles, playbooks or the console. It took me some hours to find out, that the access of complex variables is not conform all over Ansible, which mades me working with Ansible more difficult. Even If i declare hash_behavior as merge, following will not work:

ansible-playbook -e "role=thomass.mysql docker.ports=['3306'] mysql.config.bind_address=0.0.0.0 mysql.root.password=letmein mysql.root.remote_access=present" --ask-sudo-pass site.yml

Currently I define my variables the following way:

mysql_config_bindAddress: 127.0.0.1
mysql_root_password: ''
mysql_root_remoteAccess: absent
 

But this style is not as readable as the one from above and you have to repeat the whole thought path for every variable.

Is it worth to think about making the variable access to the upper variable definition uniform all over Ansible? Not just because of the better variable definition style but also because of the more intuitive usage of Ansible.