Creating a config file in PHP

One simple but elegant way is to create a config.php file (or whatever you call it) that just returns an array:

<?php

return array(
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'username' => 'root',
);

And then:

$configs = include('config.php');

Use an INI file is a flexible and powerful solution! PHP has a native function to handle it properly. For example, it is possible to create an INI file like this:

app.ini

[database]
db_name     = mydatabase
db_user     = myuser
db_password = mypassword

[application]
app_email = [email protected]
app_url   = myapp.com

So the only thing you need to do is call:

$ini = parse_ini_file('app.ini');

Then you can access the definitions easily using the $ini array.

echo $ini['db_name'];     // mydatabase
echo $ini['db_user'];     // myuser
echo $ini['db_password']; // mypassword
echo $ini['app_email'];   // [email protected]

IMPORTANT: For security reasons the INI file must be in a non public folder