As of Zend Framework 1.9, Zend_Tool_Framework allows developers
to store information, provider specific configuration values, and custom files in a
special location on the developers machine. These configuration values and files can be
used by providers to extend functionality, customize functionality, or any other reasons
a provider sees fit.
The primary purpose, and the purpose most immediately used by existing providers is to allow developers to customize the way the "out of the box" providers do work.
One of the more commonly requested features is to be able to provide custom project
profiles to Zend_Tool_Project's Project Provider. This would
allow developers to store a custom profile in a special place that can be used
repeatedly by the Zend_Tool system in order to build custom
profiles. Another commonly requested feature is to be able to configure the behavior of
providers with a configuration setting. In order to achieve this, not only do we have to
have a Zend_Tool configuration file, but we also have to have a
place to find this configuration file.
Before the Console Client can start searching for a Zend_Tool
configuration file or a local storage directory, it must first be able to identify
where the "home directory" is located.
On *nix-based machines, PHP will be populated with an environment
variable named HOME with a path to the current users home
directory. Typically, this path will be very similar to
/home/myusername.
On Windows-based machines, PHP will typically be populated with
an environment variable named HOMEPATH with the current users
home directory. This directory is usually found in either
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\, or in Vista at
C:\Users\Username.
If either a home directory cannot be found, or you wish to change the location of
where Zend_Tool_Framework Console Client finds the home
directory, you can provide an environment variable named
ZF_HOME to specify where to find the home directory.
Once a home directory can be located, Zend_Tool_Framework's
Console Client can either autodiscover the local storage directory, or it can be
told where to expect the local storage directory.
Assuming the home directory has been found (here noted as $HOME),
the Console Client will then look for the local storage directory in
$HOME/.zf/. If found, it will set the local storage directory
to this location.
If the directory cannot be found, or the developer wishes to override this location,
that can be done by setting an environment variable. Regardless if
$HOME has been previously set or not, the developer may supply
the environment variable ZF_STORAGE_DIR.
Once the path to a local storage directory is found, the directory
must exist for it to be passed into the
Zend_Tool_Framework runtime, as it will not be created for
you.
Like local storage, once a home directory can be located,
Zend_Tool_Framework's Console Client can then either attempt
to autodiscover the path to a configuration file, or it can be told specifically
where to find the configuration file.
Assuming the home directory has been found (here noted as $HOME),
the Console Client will then attempt to look for the existence of a configuration
file located at $HOME/.zf.ini. This file, if found, will be
used as the configuration file for Zend_Tool_Framework.
If that location does not exist, but a local storage directory does, then the
Console Client will then attempt to locate the configuration file within the local
storage directory. Assuming the local storage directory exists in
$LOCAL_STORAGE, then if a file exists as
$LOCAL_STORAGE/zf.ini, it will be found by the Console Client
and utilized as the Zend_Tool_Framework configuration file.
If the file cannot be autodiscovered or the developer wishes to specify the location
of location of the configuration file, the developer can do so by setting an
environment variable. If the environment variable
ZF_CONFIG_FILE is set, then its value will be used as the
location of the configuration file to use with the Console Client. The
ZF_CONFIG_FILE can point to any
Zend_Config readable INI,
XML or PHP File.
If the file does not exist in either the autodiscovered or the provided location, it
will not be used as Zend_Tool_Framework does not attempt to
create the file automatically.
The configuration file should be structured as a Zend_Config
configuration file, in INI format, and without any sections being
defined. First level keys should be used by the provider searching for a specific
value. For example, if the "Project" provider is expecting a "profiles" directory,
then it should typically be understood that it will search for the following
INI key value pair:
project.profile = some/path/to/some-directory
The only reserved INI prefix is the value "php". The "php" prefix to values will be reserved to store names and values of runtime settable PHP values, such as include_path or error_reporting. To override the include_path and error_reporting with an INI value, a developer would set:
php.include_path = "/path/to/includes1:/path/to/includes2" php.error_reporting = 1
Important
The reserved prefix "php" only works with INI files. You can't set PHP INI values with PHP or XML config.