Laravel: connect to databases dynamically

I've stumbled upon the same problem.

You can actually change database settings in runtime and use them.

Use the config() function to set extra or overwrite existing connection settings.

config(['database.connections.mynewconnection' => {settings here}]);

Keep in mind that these settings are cached. So when you need to use the new settings, purge the DB cache for the connection you're gonna use.

DB::purge('mynewconnection');

You can also manipulate the default connection that is used. This can come in handy if you wish to use migrations over different connections and keep track of them with a migration table within the used connection. Or other cool stuff ofcourse...

DB::setDefaultConnection('mynewconnection');

The simplest solution is to set your database config at runtime. Laravel might expect these settings to be loaded from the config/database.php file, but that doesn't mean you can't set or change them later on.

The config loaded from config/database.php is stored as database in Laravel config. Meaning, the connections array inside config/database.php is stored at database.connections.

So you can easily override/change these connections like this:

Config::set("database.connections.mysql", [
    "host" => "...",
    "database" => "...",
    "username" => "...",
    "password" => "..."
]);

From there on out, any Eloquent models that use this mysql connection will be using this new database connection config.

I'd recommend doing this in a Service Provider if possible.

I ran into this problem too with a script that imports multiple MS Access DB files into MySQL and I was not satisfied with any of the solutions which suggested editing configuration at runtime. It was ugly and messy to dynamically create a new config for every single Access DB file that I wanted to import. After some playing, I manged to persuade Laravel to switch DBs on the existing connection like this:

$mysqlConn = DB::connection();
$mysqlConn->getPdo()->exec("USE $schemaName;");
$mysqlConn->setDatabaseName($schemaName);

You might need to use these:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Config;
use DB;

Set database configurations:

        Config::set("database.connections.mysql_external", [
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            "host" => "localhost",
            "database" => "db_name",
            "username" => "root",
            "password" => "root",
            "port" => '8889',
            'charset'   => 'utf8',
            'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
            'prefix'    => '',
            'strict'    => false,
        ]);

Connect to database and do stuff:

    $users = DB::connection('mysql_external')->select('Select id from users');

Disconnect database and reset config variables

        DB::disconnect('mysql_external');
        Config::set("database.connections.mysql_external", [
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            "host" => "localhost",
            "database" => "",
            "username" => "",
            "password" => "",
            "port" => '',
            'charset'   => 'utf8',
            'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
            'prefix'    => '',
            'strict'    => false,
        ]);