CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phplaravellaravel-5lumen
ACD
ACD

Reputation: 1431

How to define constants that can be used across config files in Laravel 5?

As I checked on multiple sources, the Laravel way of defining constant variables is through config files. However, in my case, I want to use constants across my config files which is not possible since, as I read, it's not possible/advisable to call a config from another.

EXAMPLE

Constants:

define('THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE', 1);
define('THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_UGLY', 2);
define('THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_BAD', 12372);

config1.php

return [
   THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE = ['many', 'nice', 'data'],
]

config2.php

return [
   ['many', 'nice', 'data', THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE],
]

As you can see, I just can't use the actual value of the defined constants since it'll be too unreadable. Also I don't want to clump up my .env file with these constants since it's not really meant for it.

Any workaround for this? Thanks.

P.S Why does this so hard whilst it should be very basic principle of PHP to utilise constant definitions. CI has these figured out :/

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2663

Answers (2)

lighter
lighter

Reputation: 2806

I think you can use php include on your config.php if you don't want add a lot of to .env file. Just like that

<?php

include 'something_constant.php';

return [
   THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE = ['many', 'nice', 'data'],
];

Upvotes: 1

Dimitri Mostrey
Dimitri Mostrey

Reputation: 2355

The best way to do this is to add them to the config/app.php file. Somewhere above the providers[] list you could add

'CONST' => ['THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE' => 1,
            'THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_UGLY' => 2, 
           ],

and anywhere in the code access the values with the laravel helper config('app.CONST.THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE');

You can make use of the .env file but beware that in production, this file is ignored because the config is automatically cached. In .env you could add the line THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE=1 and in the config/app.php file you add 

'CONST' => ['THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE' => env('THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE'),],

from where you can access the value just the same with the config() helper.

Personally I add the values in the app.php file and don't bother with adding values to .env, because mostly these contain non-critical information (i.e. your private keys etc)

If you'd like to create a separate file to isolate from the other config files, you could create a file f.ex. config/constants.php and return an array as it is done in other config files. Make it a flat array (no 'CONST' key). In the app/providers/AppServiceProvider in the register() method add

$this->mergeConfigFrom('config/constants.php', 'constants');

This way you can access your constants with config('constants.THE_ID_OF_SOMETHING_NICE');

Upvotes: 1

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