Reading Configurations

Phalcon\Config is a component used to read configuration files of various formats (using adapters) into PHP objects for use in an application.

File Adapters

The adapters available are:

File Type	Description
Ini	Uses INI files to store settings. Internally the adapter uses the PHP function parse_ini_file.
Array	Uses PHP multidimensional arrays to store settings. This adapter offers the best performance.

Native Arrays

The next example shows how to convert native arrays into Phalcon\Config objects. This option offers the best performance since no files are read during this request.

$settings = array(
    "database" => array(
        "adapter"  => "Mysql",
        "host"     => "localhost",
        "username" => "scott",
        "password" => "cheetah",
        "dbname"     => "test_db",
    ),
     "app" => array(
        "controllersDir" => "../app/controllers/",
        "modelsDir"      => "../app/models/",
        "viewsDir"       => "../app/views/",
    ),
    "mysetting" => "the-value"
);

$config = new \Phalcon\Config($settings);

echo $config->app->controllersDir, "\n";
echo $config->database->username, "\n";
echo $config->mysetting, "\n";

If you want to better organize your project you can save the array in another file and then read it.

require "config/config.php";
$config = new \Phalcon\Config($settings);

Reading INI Files

Ini files are a common way to store settings. Phalcon\Config uses the optimized PHP function parse_ini_file to read these files. Files sections are parsed into sub-settings for easy access.

[database]
adapter  = Mysql
host     = localhost
username = scott
password = cheetah
dbname     = test_db

[phalcon]
controllersDir = "../app/controllers/"
modelsDir      = "../app/models/"
viewsDir       = "../app/views/"

[models]
metadata.adapter  = "Memory"

You can read the file as follows:

$config = new \Phalcon\Config\Adapter\Ini("path/config.ini");

echo $config->phalcon->controllersDir, "\n";
echo $config->database->username, "\n";
echo $config->models->metadata->adapter, "\n";

Merging Configurations

Phalcon\Config allows to merge a configuration object into another one recursively:

$config = new \Phalcon\Config(array(
    'database' => array(
        'host' => 'localhost',
        'dbname' => 'test_db'
    ),
    'debug' => 1
));

$config2 = new \Phalcon\Config(array(
    'database' => array(
        'username' => 'scott',
        'password' => 'secret',
    )
));

$config->merge($config2);

print_r($config);

The above code produces the following:

Phalcon\Config Object
(
    [database] => Phalcon\Config Object
        (
            [host] => localhost
            [dbname] => test_db
            [username] => scott
            [password] => secret
        )
    [debug] => 1
)

There are more adapters available for this components in the Phalcon Incubator