connecting to two different databases with Zend Framework

Question

I have here a medium sized intranet site which is written entirely in Zend FW. The database for the intranet is located on another server. Now I need to extend the intranet with some new functionality. In order to do this I need to connect to another database on the same server (and same DBMS).

The question is now: What is the best way to do this? Should I create a new Zend_Config object and a new Zend_Db_Adapter? Or should I use the existing one and try with the "use otherdbname;" statement to connect within the same session to the new database?

Or is there an even better way to do it?

Answer 1

One option is to register 2 database handles from within your bootstrap.php, one for each connection. E.g.:

$parameters = array(
                    'host'     => 'xx.xxx.xxx.xxx',
                    'username' => 'test',
                    'password' => 'test',
                    'dbname'   => 'test'
                   );
try {
    $db = Zend_Db::factory('Pdo_Mysql', $parameters);
    $db->getConnection();
} catch (Zend_Db_Adapter_Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    die('Could not connect to database.');
} catch (Zend_Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    die('Could not connect to database.');
}
Zend_Registry::set('db', $db);

$parameters = array(
                    'host'     => 'xx.xxx.xxx.xxx',
                    'username' => 'test',
                    'password' => 'test',
                    'dbname'   => 'test'
                   );
try {
    $db = Zend_Db::factory('Pdo_Mysql', $parameters);
    $db->getConnection();
} catch (Zend_Db_Adapter_Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    die('Could not connect to database.');
} catch (Zend_Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    die('Could not connect to database.');
}
Zend_Registry::set('db2', $db);

In your controllers (e.g.):

public function init()
{
     $this->db = Zend_Registry::get('db');
     $this->db2 = Zend_Registry::get('db2');
}

public function fooAction()
{
    $data = $this->db2->fetchAll('select foo from blah');
    ...
}