How to make a CMS config file in PHP (custom)

Question

I am making a custom CMS in PHP and I want to know what the best way would be to create a config file for it. I want it where I can change the variables from within the admin panel I am going to add. I have not messed with the filesystem functions before or any other file functions so I am not sure what would be the best approach. Thanks!

Answer 1

An .ini file can be structured quite well and you'll be able to update just sections of. Compared to a straight PHP configuration it can be edited with an easier syntax.

To parse the .ini file into a PHP array, use the function parse_ini_file()

Answer 2

If you want a human-readable config file format then look into parse_ini_file(). You'll need to be able to write to the file too, see: create ini file, write values in PHP. There's a PEAR Package Config_Lite that seems like it should work too.

If readability doesn't matter then save it to a database.

Answer 3

The best idea I think is to use MySQL to store the data.

However, if you cannot do that for some reasons, then I would suggest to make it an XML file and then you can get variables from SimpleXML, and such, you can view all and put their values to a form. Then, the destination PHP could easily make a string like "<val1>".$_POST["value1"]."</val1><val2>".$_POST["value2"]."</val2>". Finally, it would save the file through simple file system functions, which you can learn with googling "php file write".

Or another idea is the parse_ini_file() which is already mentioned.

If you don't understand something, ask. Or Google!

Answer 4

If you want the variables to be changeable via an admin web interface, store those variables in the database like any other CRUD data.