[pmwiki-users] most user-friendly method of database configuration

[Ben Stallings]

I'm back, looking for more feedback...

Although development on DataQuery has been stalled for the last few days 
(no puns on my name, please), Pico and I have been having an interesting 
off-list conversation about how to configure the database(s).

In SelectQuery and UpdateForm I did it with constants, and so for 
backward-compatibility I did the same in DataQuery.  But not only is 
this nonstandard in the PmWiki world, Pico has pointed out that it 
doesn't allow for multiple simultaneous databases.

What I really want to do, I suppose, is allow people to add as many 
DataStore objects (i.e. databases) as they like to their $WikiLibDirs 
(i.e. places the wiki looks for pages).  (This is assuming, of course, 
that I get the recipe finished in the near future!)

The way this would typically be done, I believe, is for the admin to 
define a multi-dimensional array in the config.php:

$DQConnections = array(
  array(
   'type' => 'mysql',
   'server' => 'db.example.com',
   'name' => 'example_database_name',
   'user' => 'example_user',
   'passwd' => 'example_password'),
  array(
   'type' => 'postgres',
   'server' => 'postgresql.example.com',
   'name' => 'another_example_name',
   'user' => 'another_user',
   'passwd' => 'another_password'),
  array(
   'type' => 'access',
   'driver' => 'Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)',
   'path' => 'd:\\northwind.mdb',
   'user' => 'Admin',
   'passwd' => ''));
include('cookbook/dataquery.php');

and the recipe would then create as many new DataStore objects as there 
are sub-arrays, plugging each database's info into the 
ADONewConnection() function in turn.  The wiki in this example would 
look for pages first in wiki.d, then in wikilib.d, then in mysql, then 
in postres, and finally in access.

Trouble is, I have a sneaking suspicion that multi-dimensional arrays, 
with their fickle commas and their nested parentheses, are intimidating 
to people who don't eat PHP for breakfast.  I made a mistake myself 
while typing it in and only caught it on the third reading, and I *do* 
eat PHP for breakfast.  PHP Crisp.

So I'm wondering if it might actually be easier to have people add the 
DataStore objects to their $WikiLibDirs manually rather than putting the 
info into either a set of constants or a variable.  Instead of the 
above, an aspiring admin might put this into config.php:

  include('cookbook/dataquery.php');
  $WikiLibDirs[] = new 
DataStore('mysql','db.example.com','example_database_name','example_user','example_password');
  $WikiLibDirs[] = new 
DataStore('postgres','postgresql.example.com','another_database_name','another_user','another_password');
  $WikiLibDirs[] = new DataStore('access',"Driver={Microsoft Access 
Driver (*.mdb)};Dbq=d:\\northwind.mdb;Uid=Admin;Pwd=;");

(Those with only one database to connect would stop after the first two 
lines.)

It seems to me that this second syntax is actually harder to screw up 
than the multi-dimensional array.  But that could just be me, so I'm 
eager for other opinions.  Or is there an even simpler syntax I haven't 
thought of?  --Ben S.