Development - Configuration Files

All framework configuration files are PHP files. A configuration file contains PHP code returning a named array of parameters as shown below:

<?php
return array(
    // Main settings
    'param1' => 'value1',
    'param2' => 'value2',
    
    // Additional settings
    'param3' => array(
        'param3_1' => 'value3_1',
        'param3_2' => 'value3_2',
        'param3_3' => 'value3_3',
    ),    
    ...
);

Application configuration files

The application-related configuration files must be placed in protected/config/ subdirectory inside the application directory. Changing the location or the name of a configuration file is not allowed.

File `main.php`

File main.php is the main configuration file of the application. It contains the application name, current version number, default template, controller, action and other parameters.

Example of the main.php file for Login System application:

<?php
return array(
    // Application data
    'name'=>'Login System',
    'version'=>'0.0.1',

    // Installation settings
    'installationKey' => 'YOUR_INSTALLATION_KEY',

    // Password keys settings (for database passwords only - don't change it)
    // md5, sha1, sha256, whirlpool, etc.
    'password' => array(
        'encryption' => true,
        'encryptAlgorithm' => 'sha256',
        'encryptSalt' => true,
        'hashKey' => 'YOUR_HASH_PASSWORD_KEY',    
    ),
    
    // Default email settings 
    'email' => array(
        'mailer' => 'smtpMailer', /* phpMail | phpMailer | smtpMailer */
        'from' => 'info@email.me',
        'fromName' => '', /* John Smith */
        'isHtml' => true,
        'smtp' => array(
            'auth' => true, /* true or false */
            'secure' => 'ssl', /* 'ssl', 'tls' or '' */
            'host' => 'smtp.gmail.com',
            'port' => '465',
            'username' => '',
            'password' => '',
        ),
    ),
    
    // Validation
    'validation' => array(
        'csrf' => true
        'bruteforce' => array('enable' => true, 'badLogins' => 5, 'redirectDelay' => 3),
    ),

    // Exception handling
    // Define exceptions exceptions in application
    'exceptionHandling' => array(
        'enable' => true, 
        'level' => 'global'
    ),

    // Output compression
    'compression' => array(
        'gzip' => array('enable' => true),
        'html' => array('enable' => false),
        'css' => array('enable' => false, 'path' => 'assets/minified/css/', 'minify' => true),
        'js' => array('enable' => false, 'path' => 'assets/minified/js/', 'minify' => true),
    ),

    // Session settings
    'session' => array(
        'customStorage' => false, 	/* true value means use a custom storage (database), false - standard storage */
        'cacheLimiter' => '',		/* to prevent 'Web Page expired' message for POST request use "private,must-revalidate" */
        'lifetime' => 24,		/* session timeout in minutes, default: 24 min = 1440 sec */
    ),
    
    // Cookies settings
    'cookies' => array(
        'domain' => '', 
        'path' => '/' 
    ),

    // Cache settings 
    'cache' => array(
        'enable' => false,
        'type' => 'auto', /* 'auto' or 'manual' */
        'lifetime' => 20, /* in minutes */
        'path' => 'protected/tmp/cache/'
    ),

    // Logger settings 
    'log' => array(
        'enable' => true, 
        'path' => 'protected/tmp/logs/',
        'fileExtension' => 'php', 	
        'dateFormat' => 'Y-m-d H:i:s',
        'threshold' => 1,
        'filePermissions' => 0644,
        'lifetime' => 30			/* in days */
    ),

    // RSS Feed settings 
    'rss' => array(
        'path' => 'feeds/'
    ),

    // Datetime settings
    'defaultTimeZone' => 'UTC',
    
    // Template default settings  
    'template' => array(
        'default' => 'default'
    ),
    
    // Layout default settings  
    'layouts' => array(
        'enable' => true, 
        'default' => 'default'
    ),
    
    // Default settings (optional, if defined - will be used as application default settings)
    'defaultErrorController' => 'Error', /* may be overridden by module settings */
    'defaultController' => 'Index',		 /* may be overridden by module settings */
    'defaultAction' => 'index',			 /* may be overridden by module settings */
    
    // Application payment complete page (controller/action - may be overridden by module settings)
    'paymentCompletePage' => '',

    // Application components
    'components' => array(
        'Bootstrap' => array('enable' => true, 'class' => 'Bootstrap'),
        // Other components...
    ),

    // Widget settings
    'widgets' => array(
        'paramKeysSensitive' => false
    ),

    // Application helpers
    'helpers' => array(
        //'helper' => array('enable' => true, 'class' => 'Helper'),
        // Other helpers...
    ),

    // Application modules
    'modules' => array(
        'setup' => array('enable' => true, 'removable' => false),
        // Other modules...
    ),

    // Url manager
    'urlManager' => array(
        'urlFormat' => 'shortPath',  /* get | path | shortPath */
        'rules' => array(
            //'controller/action/value1/value2' => 'controller/action/param1/value1/param2/value2',
        ),
    ),    
);

Below the list of all parameters that can be used in file main.php:

name: application name, required parameter
version: application version number (optional parameter)
installationKey: application installation key (used to identify specific installation)
password.encryption: specifies whether to use password encryption or not
password.encryptAlgorithm: encryption algorithm
password.encryptSalt: specifies whether to use "salt" for passwords encryption
password.hashKey: password hash key (used to encrypt passwords in database)
email.mailer: specifies mailer type
email.from: specifies email address used as "from" email
email.fromName: specifies email sender name used as "fromName <from>"
email.isHtml: specifies whether to send HTML code in emails or not
email.smtp: defines SMTP connection parameters
validation.csrf: specifies whether to allow CSRF validation
validation.bruteforce: specifies whether to allow bruteforce validation
session.customStorage: defines whether to use a custom storage
session.cacheLimiter: defines cache limiter value for session
cookies.domain: defines domain that the cookie is available to
cookies.path: defines path on the server where the cookie will be available on
cache.enable: enables cache
cache.lifetime: defines a lifetime of cache in minutes
cache.path: defines a path to cache files
defaultTimeZone: defines default timezone for application
template.default: specifies default template for application
defaultErrorController: specifies default error controller
defaultController: specifies default controller
defaultAction: specifies default action
components: specifies allowed application components
modules: specifies allowed application modules
urlManager: defines rules for URL routing

File `db.php`

File db.php contains database connection parameters.

Example of the db.php file for Login System application:

<?php
return array(
    // Database settings
    'db' => array(
        'driver' 	=> 'mysql',
        'socket' 	=> '',
        'host' 		=> 'localhost',
        'port' 		=> '',
        'database' 	=> 'mvc',
        'username' 	=> 'root',
        'password' 	=> '',
        'prefix' 	=> 'apcmf_',
        'charset' 	=> 'utf8',
        'schema' 	=> 'public'
    ),       
);

Below the list of all parameters that can be used in file db.php:

db.driver: the type of database: mysql, mssql, etc.
db.socket: socket (e.g /tmp/mysql.sock) - if defined db.host is ignored
db.host: database host
db.port: database port
db.database: database name
db.username: database username
db.password: database user password
db.prefix: prefix for database tables (optional parameter)
db.charset: charset for database tables (optional parameter, default - utf8)
db.schema: schema for database (optional parameter)

Examples of using configuration in application code

Setting up mailer configuration:

CMailer::config(array('mailer'=>CConfig::get('email.mailer')));

Setting up db connection:

parent::__construct(
    CConfig::get('db.driver').':host='.CConfig::get('db.host').';dbname='.CConfig::get('db.database'),
    CConfig::get('db.username'),
    CConfig::get('db.password')
);

Module Files

ApPHP framework allows to export while installation module configuration files in config directory. This feature allows application to merge them and use like a one configuration file. To read more info click here.