Laravel 4 - Connect to other database

Question

I want to connect to another database sometimes.

I created a config.php with the database connection data.

But how can i tell laravel to connect to this database insted of using the config/database.php?

For example when using the Schema class.

Since no one seems to understand what i want.

I DON'T want to use the config/database.php, i want to use a different config file on a different location.

Answer 1

It sounds like you figured this out. Here's how I'd accomplish it anyway for other people coming in, or in case something useful is here for you.

First, Add a second connection in app/config/database.php. Note: That file path may change depending on your environment.

<?php return array(     'connections' => array(         'mysql' => array(             'driver'    => 'mysql',             'host'      => 'localhost',             'database'  => 'database1',             'username'  => 'user1',             'password'  => 'pass1'             'charset'   => 'utf8',             'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',             'prefix'    => '',         ),          'mysql2' => array(             'driver'    => 'mysql',             'host'      => 'localhost',             'database'  => 'database2',             'username'  => 'user2',             'password'  => 'pass2'             'charset'   => 'utf8',             'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',             'prefix'    => '',         ),     ), ); 

Second, in your code, you can use (as mentioned) the 2nd connection where you would like:

Schema::connection('mysql2')->create('users', function($table) {})

There's more documentation on this - see Accessing Connections.

Eloquent ORM You can define the variable for "connection" in an eloquent class to set which connection is used. That's noted in the Basic Usage section.

See that variable on here on Github and the method which you can set to set the connection dynamically here.

Edit The OP has made it clear that they do not wish to use the config/database.php file for config.

However without explaining further, I can't comment. I'm happy to help - sounds like it would be useful to know why the config/database.php file can't/shouldn't be used, as this can help us ascertain the problem and create a useful solution.

Answer 2

I believe you want to implement some kind of logical sharding where databases would be dynamically created.

In such scenario in laravel you can dynamically add a database config, like below

$conn = array(     'driver'    => 'mysql',     'host'      => 'localhost',     'database'  => 'DATABASE',     'username'  => 'USERNAME',     'password'  => 'SOME_PASSWORD',     'charset'   => 'utf8',     'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',     'prefix'    => '', );  Config::set('database.connections.DB_CONFIG_NAME', $conn); 

Now to connect via eloquent

MODEL::on('DB_CONFIG_NAME')->WHAT_EVER('1'); 

Incase of Query Builder you can do

$DB = DB::connection('DB_CONFIG_NAME'); 

use $DB->select() for querying now.

Hope this would help devs looking for a possible solution for this question