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<div class="chapter" title="Chapter 9. Config Files">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title">
<a name="config.files"></a>Chapter 9. Config Files</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
Config files are handy for designers to manage global template
variables from one file. One example is template colors. Normally
if you wanted to change the color scheme of an application, you
would have to go through each and every template file and change the
colors. With a config file, the colors can be kept in one place, and
only one file needs to be updated.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="id3084196"></a><p class="title"><b>Example 9.1. Example of config file syntax</b></p>
<div class="example-contents"><pre class="programlisting">
# global variables
pageTitle = "Main Menu"
bodyBgColor = #000000
tableBgColor = #000000
rowBgColor = #00ff00
[Customer]
pageTitle = "Customer Info"
[Login]
pageTitle = "Login"
focus = "username"
Intro = """This is a value that spans more
than one line. you must enclose
it in triple quotes."""
# hidden section
[.Database]
host=my.example.com
db=ADDRESSBOOK
user=php-user
pass=foobar
</pre></div>
</div>
<br class="example-break"><p>
Values of <a class="link" href="language.config.variables.html" title="Variables loaded from config files">config file
variables</a> can be in quotes, but not necessary. You can use
either single or double quotes. If you have a value that spans more
than one line, enclose the entire value with triple quotes
("""). You can put comments into config files by any syntax that is
not a valid config file syntax. We recommend using a <code class="literal">
#</code> (hash) at the beginning of the line.
</p>
<p>
The example config file above has two sections. Section names are
enclosed in [brackets]. Section names can be arbitrary strings not
containing <code class="literal">[</code> or <code class="literal">]</code> symbols. The
four variables at the top are global variables, or variables not
within a section. These variables are always loaded from the config
file. If a particular section is loaded, then the global variables
and the variables from that section are also loaded. If a variable
exists both as a global and in a section, the section variable is
used. If you name two variables the same within a section, the last
one will be used unless <a class="link" href="variable.config.overwrite.html" title="$config_overwrite">
<em class="parameter"><code>$config_overwrite</code></em></a> is disabled.
</p>
<p>
Config files are loaded into templates with the built-in template function
<a class="link" href="language.function.config.load.html" title="{config_load}"><code class="varname">
{config_load}</code></a> or the API <a class="link" href="api.config.load.html" title="config_load()"><code class="varname">config_load()</code></a> function.
</p>
<p>
You can hide variables or entire sections by prepending the variable
name or section name with a period eg <code class="literal">[.hidden]</code>. This is useful if your
application reads the config files and gets sensitive data from them
that the template engine does not need. If you have third parties
doing template editing, you can be certain that they cannot read
sensitive data from the config file by loading it into the template.
</p>
<p>
See also
<a class="link" href="language.function.config.load.html" title="{config_load}"><code class="varname">{config_load}</code></a>,
<a class="link" href="variable.config.overwrite.html" title="$config_overwrite"><em class="parameter"><code>$config_overwrite</code></em></a>,
<a class="link" href="api.get.config.vars.html" title="get_config_vars()"><code class="varname">get_config_vars()</code></a>,
<a class="link" href="api.clear.config.html" title="clear_config()"><code class="varname">clear_config()</code></a>
and
<a class="link" href="api.config.load.html" title="config_load()"><code class="varname">config_load()</code></a>
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