Updating Language constants dynamically

[coldasice1234]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I thought that I would prob have to write custom code, but it is this I need guidance with.


I intend to put in place a validation using javascript to make sure that any possible wrong characters cant be used and also I ill be advising the users of this.

I dont want to give them access to the actual files via ftp and I also think that they would edit the wrong files or upload them in the wrong places etc.

I know how to open and write to a file but what I am unsure of is how to search through the file for each define statement and return these, and change the appropriate ones where necessary.

As i said before,
If you can help at all by even telling me which functions php has which may make this possible I should be able to work out the rest hopefully.

[DrByte]

file() will read in the contents of a file, line by line
file_get_contents() will read in the entire file
fopen(), fput(), fclose() will open, write, and close files, respectively
Parsing will likely need to be done via regular expressions ... ereg(), etc

The secondary problem you'll have with this is security. In order to be able to write back to the files, they need to be world-writable, which leaves them open as prime targets for hackers.

[coldasice1234]

Thanks for you help.

Good point on security.

I was looking through the php for the admin pages for the shop configuration, and they seem to be set up to modify the database directly.

Do you know if the values are usually taken from the database first and then placed into the files or are they never 'syncronised' and if not which values are taken as being the 'main' ones the database or the language files?

I think an alternative may then be to set up the new defines to be canged to be changed in the database directly, and should I require to add custom defines then I can just add rows to the database tables where necessary / create a new custom table.

what are your thoughts on this?

[yellow1912]

As far as I remember, constants set in configuration table are available anywhere, so you should check on that (Dr Byte would know the exact answer for this). You can have all the constants stored in db, then load and define them before anything else.

[DrByte]

Since you're going to need to rewrite file contents, start with the define-pages-editor as a base. The configuration tool is not a good model for reading the entire file.
Enhance its file-reading facility by adding line-parsing to identify each define statement.
Build input fields on the screen for each one
Collect all the info.
Validate the info, and write the defines back to the file.

If you want to rewrite the language infrastructure to use the database instead, keep in mind the need to support multiple languages and also to handle code upgrades. You'll still need to create a user interface to present and collect the information, then validate it and save it.

[coldasice1234]

DrByte, I just want to clarify to make sure I understand correctly.

I should take a copy of the define-pages-editor page and alter this as a starting point and
Then ammend it so that when it reads through the files it parses any instances of the define calls using parse function.
For each instance of define() I should create an input field (to allow the editing)

When submit, collect any changes and validate them (ie so no php errors etc caused) and then re-write the file the define statement came from?

Is this what you are saying or have I missed the point somewhere?

Thanks for you responses and help!

[DrByte]

Assuming you intend to proceed with editing language files and plan to deal with security concerns separately, then yes.

[coldasice1234]

If I want to do this without affecting security, is there a method of achieving this?

Can you clarify the difference between the language files and the database configuration table, in terms of which one over-rides the other? If I changed the values in the database - are they reflected through the site or are they over-ridden by the language files?

Thanks

[DrByte]

If I want to do this without affecting security, is there a method of achieving this?

Yes -- use the database alternative we've been discussing:

I think an alternative may then be to set up the new defines to be canged to be changed in the database directly, and should I require to add custom defines then I can just add rows to the database tables where necessary / create a new custom table.

If you want to rewrite the language infrastructure to use the database instead, keep in mind the need to support multiple languages and also to handle code upgrades. You'll still need to create a user interface to present and collect the information, then validate it and save it.

[DrByte]

Do you know if the values are usually taken from the database first and then placed into the files or are they never 'syncronised' and if not which values are taken as being the 'main' ones the database or the language files?

It all depends how you write your custom code.

A constant is ... well ... constant. It never changes once defined. So, whatever you set it to be, it will be. You can't change it later without loading a new page.