Reading Configurations

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

Native Arrays

The first 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.

use Phalcon\Config;

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

$config = new Config($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.

use Phalcon\Config;

require "config/config.php";

$config = new Config($settings);

File Adapters

The adapters available are:

Class	Description
Phalcon\Config\Adapter\Ini	Uses INI files to store settings. Internally the adapter uses the PHP function parse_ini_file.
Phalcon\Config\Adapter\Json	Uses JSON files to store settings.
Phalcon\Config\Adapter\Php	Uses PHP multidimensional arrays to store settings. This adapter offers the best performance.
Phalcon\Config\Adapter\Yaml	Uses YAML files to store 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:

use Phalcon\Config\Adapter\Ini as ConfigIni;

$config = new ConfigIni("path/config.ini");

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

Merging Configurations

Phalcon\Config can recursively merge the properties of one configuration object into another. New properties are added and existing properties are updated.

use Phalcon\Config;

$config = new Config(
    [
        "database" => [
            "host"   => "localhost",
            "dbname" => "test_db",
        ],
        "debug" => 1,
    ]
);

$config2 = new Config(
    [
        "database" => [
            "dbname"   => "production_db",
            "username" => "scott",
            "password" => "secret",
        ],
        "logging" => 1,
    ]
);

$config->merge($config2);

print_r($config);

The above code produces the following:

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

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

Injecting Configuration Dependency

You can inject configuration dependency to controller allowing us to use Phalcon\Config inside Phalcon\Mvc\Controller. To be able to do that, add following code inside your dependency injector script.

use Phalcon\Di\FactoryDefault;
use Phalcon\Config;

// Create a DI
$di = new FactoryDefault();

$di->set(
    "config",
    function () {
        $configData = require "config/config.php";

        return new Config($configData);
    }
);

Now in your controller you can access your configuration by using dependency injection feature using name config like following code:

use Phalcon\Mvc\Controller;

class MyController extends Controller
{
    private function getDatabaseName()
    {
        return $this->config->database->dbname;
    }
}