PHP: Defining globals from a database?

Question

I have a settings file in the site I am developing which contains global site settings using this structure:

define("DB_SERVER", "localhost");

What I'd like to do instead, is create a table in the database which contains the globals and call them like:

---------------------

// Connect to the database

$conn = mysql_connect("localhost", "user", "password") or die(mysql_error());

// Grab global variables from the Site Preferences table

$query = "SELECT field, value FROM prefs ORDER BY id ASC";

$getGlobals = mysql_query($query, $conn);

while($global = mysql_fetch_array($getGlobals)){

   $field = stripslashes($global['field']);

   $value = stripslashes($global['value']);

   define($field, $value);

}

// Close the connection

mysql_close($conn);

---------------------

I can't seem to get this working though...When I call any of the defined globals they aren't recognized as defined. Anyone have suggestions on how I can get this to work?

Answer 1

Hey Chris,

I dug up some code that I am positive works.  I used it in a lot of my CMS systems.  I define this in the settings file that is included on every page.  Also, I am using ezsql class.

<?php

//////////////////////////////////////...

// DEFAULT VALUES FOR THE CMS SYSTEM

//////////////////////////////////////...

$get_defaults = $db->get_results("SELECT * FROM system_defaults");

foreach($get_defaults as $tmp_default)

{

   $tmp_name = $tmp_default->default_field;

   $tmp_value = $tmp_default->default_value;

   // Set the default field and value

   if(!define("$tmp_name",$tmp_value))

   {

      echo "Not defined!";

   }

}

?>

Maybe that will help,

Chad

Answer 2

$global is ok, only $globals is reserved. Beware to the case: constants are case sensitive (or use define($field, $value, true);).

Otherwise, if $field can be a valid identifier, there's nothing wrong with your code...

Answer 3

From first glance, it seems like it should work...the only thing I can think of is that you may not be using the "global" keyword to import the variables to a local scope before using them?