Setting application parameters dynamically in the back-end | Wiki

Setting application parameters dynamically in the back-end Follow @yiiframework

I was wondering how to set-up the application parameters in the back-end to use them all around the application without the need of using the database and I came up with this solution, I hope it helps somebody else.

Note: The directory organization described follows this tutorial.

How to do it ¶

We will start with the model, so create protected/backend/models/ConfigForm.php as follows:

<?php
class ConfigForm extends CFormModel
{
    public $adminEmail;
    public $paramName;
 
    public function rules()
    {
        return array(
            array('adminEmail, paramName','required'),
        );
    }
}
?>

Now we will move on to the controller, so create protected/backend/controllers/ConfigController.php as follows:

<?php
class ConfigController extends Controller
{
    public function actionIndex()
    {
        $file = dirname(__FILE__).'../../../config/params.inc';
        $content = file_get_contents($file);
        $arr = unserialize(base64_decode($content));
        $model = new ConfigForm();
        $model->setAttributes($arr);
 
        if (isset($_POST['ConfigForm']))
        {
            $config = array(        
                'adminEmail'=>$_POST['ConfigForm']['adminEmail'],
                'paramName'=>$_POST['ConfigForm']['paramName'],
            );
            $str = base64_encode(serialize($config));
            file_put_contents($file, $str);
            Yii::app()->user->setFlash('config', Yii::t('app', 'Your new options have been saved.'));
            $model->setAttributes($config);
        }
 
        $this->render('index',array('model'=>$model));
    }
}
?>

Finally a view protected/backend/views/config/index.php

<div class="form">
 
<?php $form = $this->beginWidget('CActiveForm', array(
    'id' => 'config-form',
    'enableAjaxValidation' => false,
));
?>
    <h1><?php echo Yii::t('app', 'Options'); ?></h1>
 
    <?php if(Yii::app()->user->hasFlash('config')):?>
    <div class="info">
        <?php echo Yii::app()->user->getFlash('config'); ?>
    </div>
    <?php endif; ?>
 
    <p class="note">
        <?php echo Yii::t('app', 'Fields with'); ?> <span class="required">*</span> <?php echo Yii::t('app', 'are required'); ?>.
    </p>
 
    <?php echo $form->errorSummary($model); ?>
 
    <div class="row">
    <?php echo $form->labelEx($model,'adminEmail'); ?>
    <?php echo $form->textField($model, 'adminEmail'); ?>
    <?php echo $form->error($model,'adminEmail'); ?>
    </div><!-- row -->
    <div class="row">
    <?php echo $form->labelEx($model,'paramName'); ?>
    <?php echo $form->textField($model, 'paramName'); ?>
    <?php echo $form->error($model,'paramName'); ?>
    </div><!-- row -->
    <div class="row buttons">
    <?php echo CHtml::submitButton(Yii::t('app', 'Save')); ?>
    </div>
 
<?php $this->endWidget(); ?>
</div><!-- form -->

Now, we will create the following config files under protected/config:

params.inc
params.php

We need to change our protected/config/main.php as follows:

// application-level parameters that can be accessed
// using Yii::app()->params['paramName']
'params'=>require(dirname(__FILE__).'/params.php'),

And protected/config/params.php will contain:

<?php
$file = dirname(__FILE__).'/params.inc';
$content = file_get_contents($file);
$arr = unserialize(base64_decode($content));
return CMap::mergeArray(
        $arr,
        array(
            'salt'=>'P@bl0',
            'someOption'=>true,
        )
    )
;
?>

How it works ¶

You can add as many parameters as you want to the ConfigForm model. In the back-end the administrator will be able to change this parameters that will be serialized into a file and loaded into the front-end.

If you have static parameters, which doesn't need to be modified, you can add them to the protected/config/params.php file where they will be merged with all the others.

In protected/config/main.php the 'params' attribute is populated with an array of name/value pairs. These options are available at runtime via the Yii::app()->params['adminEmail'] hash, which is indexed by the parameter name.

Total 4 comments

#12996

kicoe at 2013/04/27 04:34am

Completing doodle's sharing

Hi,

Thank you got 2 doodle for your sharing, very inspiring. In fact, it led me to a simple solution (5 lines) where all I could find anywher else was complex extensions... That did not work since I don't have a param table with X records of key-value items, but I have one entry withi severall columns, something like title, email, defaultimage, facebook account... etc.

So I just did that :

$app = Yii::createWebApplication($config);
$myparamtable = Myparammodel::model()->find();
 
foreach( $myparamtable->attributes as $key => $value )
{
    $app->params->add($key, $value);
}
 
$app->run();

And then I just have to call this in the application :

CHtml::encode(Yii::app()->params->titre)

I love simple solutions, you provided me one, so thank you :)

#10820

sebako at 2012/11/26 06:36am

really useful

thank you! this has been really useful for me!

#7895

Vojtech at 2012/04/25 05:39am

@got 2 doodle

Thanks! This is what I was looking for.

#6974

got 2 doodle at 2012/02/16 10:42am

Just sharing

The entry script (index.php) typically creates the Yii object like this.

require_once($yii);
Yii::createWebApplication($config)->run();

I found out that you can add or change a param when the application loads like this.

require_once($yii);
// create the application instance but don't run it yet
$app = Yii::createWebApplication($config);
// see if a conference id is present otherwise we want the default conference (active, most recent)
if(isset($_GET['c']))
{
    $app->params->conferenceID = $_GET['c'];
} else {
    $app->params->conferenceID = Conference::activeConference();
}
 
//  here we go!
$app->run();

Just another way to use the params.

doodle EDIT Now why would someone give thumbs down for this comment? How lame is that! How about leaving a comment if you have something to teach me?

Please login to leave your comment.

Setting application parameters dynamically in the back-end Follow @yiiframework

How to do it ¶

How it works ¶

Total 4 comments

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