PHPit.net is back again today with yet another great tutorial. This time, they help you create a class to manage the settings for your application that not only supports plain-text, but INI, XML, and YAML formats as well.

A config.php or a settings.xml file is a very common thing for most PHP scripts, and it's usually where all the script settings (e.g. database information) are stored. The easiest way is to simply use a simple PHP script as a config file, but this may not be the best way, and it's certainly not the most user-friendly way.

In this tutorial we'll have a look at creating a Settings class which can handle any type of config format. I'll take you through the steps necessary to handle four different formats (PHP, INI, XML and YAML), but it's very easy to add more formats.

To start, they build the base class before quickly adding the get() and load() functions to pull in the external content. First on the list, they extend the base and make a pure PHP implementation holding the settings. Following that, they move on to the INI format, using PHP's parse_ini_file function to make it simple.

Last but not least, they venture into something a bit more complex - working with XML and the YAML formats to create this simple, handy tool.

PHPit.net is back again today with yet another great tutorial. This time, they help you create a class to manage the settings for your application that not only supports plain-text, but INI, XML, and YAML formats as well.

A config.php or a settings.xml file is a very common thing for most PHP scripts, and it's usually where all the script settings (e.g. database information) are stored. The easiest way is to simply use a simple PHP script as a config file, but this may not be the best way, and it's certainly not the most user-friendly way.

In this tutorial we'll have a look at creating a Settings class which can handle any type of config format. I'll take you through the steps necessary to handle four different formats (PHP, INI, XML and YAML), but it's very easy to add more formats.

To start, they build the base class before quickly adding the get() and load() functions to pull in the external content. First on the list, they extend the base and make a pure PHP implementation holding the settings. Following that, they move on to the INI format, using PHP's parse_ini_file function to make it simple.

Last but not least, they venture into something a bit more complex - working with XML and the YAML formats to create this simple, handy tool.

On his blog, phpcult.com, today, Vidyut Luther has posted an update to his previous post asking where people usually define their settings.

My last post created a lot of conversation about how one should go about setting configuration options for your code. I realized, no one mentioned the use of PHP's built in parse_ini_file.

function. This seems to address my problems with one large monolothic file pretty easily. I can still have a globals.conf.php which handles global settings, but I can also use this ini file, to load specific things that are only necessary for modules on an as needed basis. The global scope would be aware of the CONFIG_FILE constant, and I can parse specific sections of it whenever I need to.

He notes that he'll try it in the next few days, but I imagine he'll like what he sees - especially if he's looking for a simple, external way to change information in a file and have it affect the entire app (without changing code).

On his blog, phpcult.com, today, Vidyut Luther has posted an update to his previous post asking where people usually define their settings.

My last post created a lot of conversation about how one should go about setting configuration options for your code. I realized, no one mentioned the use of PHP's built in parse_ini_file.

function. This seems to address my problems with one large monolothic file pretty easily. I can still have a globals.conf.php which handles global settings, but I can also use this ini file, to load specific things that are only necessary for modules on an as needed basis. The global scope would be aware of the CONFIG_FILE constant, and I can parse specific sections of it whenever I need to.

He notes that he'll try it in the next few days, but I imagine he'll like what he sees - especially if he's looking for a simple, external way to change information in a file and have it affect the entire app (without changing code).