Defining Application Constants in Codeigniter

Question

I want to know a clean way of defining Application Constants in Codeigniter. I don't want to change any native file of codeigniter. Hence I don't want to define it in application/config/constants.php as when I need to migrate to newer version of code-igniter I will not be able to copy the native files of codeigniter directly.

I created a file application/config/my_constants.php and defined my constants there. 'define('APP_VERSION', '1.0.0');'

I loaded it using $this->load->config('my_constants');

But I am getting a error

Your application/config/dv_constants.php file does not appear to contain a valid configuration array.

Please suggest me a clean way of defining application level constants in code-igniter.

Answer 1

Not using application/config/constants.php is nonsense! That is the only place you should be putting your constants. Don't change the files in system if you are worried about upgrading.

Answer 2

    config file (system/application/config/config.php) to set configuration related variables.

    Or use 

    constant file (system/application/config/constants.php) to store site preference constants.


  =======================
  DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT
  =======================
  $config['index_page'] = 'home';
  $config['BASEPATH'] = 'PATH TO YOUR HOST';

Answer 3

just a complete answer. (None of the answers show how to use the constants that were declared)

The process is simple:

1. Defining a constant. Open config/constants.php and add the following line:

   define('SITE_CREATOR', 'John Doe')

2. use this constant in another file using:

   $myVar = 'This site was created by '.SITE_CREATOR.' Check out my GitHub Profile'

Answer 4

Instead of using define(), your my_constants.php file should look something like this:

$config['app_version'] = '1.0.0';

Be careful with naming the array key though, you don't want to conflict with anything.

If you need to use define(), I would suggest doing it in the main index.php file, though you will still need to use APP_VERSION to get the value.