create ini file, write values in PHP - php

Question

I cannot find a way that easily lets me create a new file, treat it as an ini file (not php.ini or simiilar... a separate ini file for per user), and create/delete values using PHP. PHP seems to offer no easy way to create an ini file and read/write/delete values. So far, it's all just "read" - nothing about creating entries or manipulating keys/values.

Answer 1

Found following code snippet from the comments of the PHP documentation:
function write_ini_file($assoc_arr, $path, $has_sections=FALSE) {
$content = "";
if ($has_sections) {
foreach ($assoc_arr as $key=>$elem) {
$content .= "[".$key."]\n";
foreach ($elem as $key2=>$elem2) {
if(is_array($elem2))
{
for($i=0;$i<count($elem2);$i++)
{
$content .= $key2."[] = \"".$elem2[$i]."\"\n";
}
}
else if($elem2=="") $content .= $key2." = \n";
else $content .= $key2." = \"".$elem2."\"\n";
}
}
}
else {
foreach ($assoc_arr as $key=>$elem) {
if(is_array($elem))
{
for($i=0;$i<count($elem);$i++)
{
$content .= $key."[] = \"".$elem[$i]."\"\n";
}
}
else if($elem=="") $content .= $key." = \n";
else $content .= $key." = \"".$elem."\"\n";
}
}
if (!$handle = fopen($path, 'w')) {
return false;
}
$success = fwrite($handle, $content);
fclose($handle);
return $success;
}
Usage:
$sampleData = array(
'first' => array(
'first-1' => 1,
'first-2' => 2,
'first-3' => 3,
'first-4' => 4,
'first-5' => 5,
),
'second' => array(
'second-1' => 1,
'second-2' => 2,
'second-3' => 3,
'second-4' => 4,
'second-5' => 5,
));
write_ini_file($sampleData, './data.ini', true);
Good luck!

Answer 2

PEAR has two (unit tested) packages which do the task you are longing for:
Config_Lite - ideal if you only want .ini files
Config - reads also .php and .xml files
I'd rather use well tested code than writing my own.

Answer 3

I can't vouch for how well it works, but there's some suggestions for implementing the opposite of parse_ini_file() (i.e. write_ini_file, which isn't a standard PHP function) on the documentation page for parse_ini_file.
You can use write_ini_file to send the values to a file, parse_ini_file to read them back in - modify the associative array that parse_ini_file returns, and then write the modified array back to the file with write_ini_file.
Does that work for you?

Answer 4

in this portion of code:
else {
foreach ($assoc_arr as $key=>$elem) {
if(is_array($elem))
{
for($i=0;$i<count($elem);$i++)
{
$content .= $key2."[] = \"".$elem[$i]."\"\n";
}
}
else if($elem=="") $content .= $key2." = \n";
else $content .= $key2." = \"".$elem."\"\n";
}
}
$key2 must be replaced by $key or you would find empty keys in your .ini

Answer 5

based on the above answers I wrote this class that might be useful. For PHP 5.3 but can be easily adapted for previous versions.
class Utils
{
public static function write_ini_file($assoc_arr, $path, $has_sections)
{
$content = '';
if (!$handle = fopen($path, 'w'))
return FALSE;
self::_write_ini_file_r($content, $assoc_arr, $has_sections);
if (!fwrite($handle, $content))
return FALSE;
fclose($handle);
return TRUE;
}
private static function _write_ini_file_r(&$content, $assoc_arr, $has_sections)
{
foreach ($assoc_arr as $key => $val) {
if (is_array($val)) {
if($has_sections) {
$content .= "[$key]\n";
self::_write_ini_file_r(&$content, $val, false);
} else {
foreach($val as $iKey => $iVal) {
if (is_int($iKey))
$content .= $key ."[] = $iVal\n";
else
$content .= $key ."[$iKey] = $iVal\n";
}
}
} else {
$content .= "$key = $val\n";
}
}
}
}

Answer 6

I use this and it seems to work
function listINIRecursive($array_name, $indent = 0)
{
global $str;
foreach ($array_name as $k => $v)
{
if (is_array($v))
{
for ($i=0; $i < $indent * 5; $i++){ $str.= " "; }
$str.= " [$k] \r\n";
listINIRecursive($v, $indent + 1);
}
else
{
for ($i=0; $i < $indent * 5; $i++){ $str.= " "; }
$str.= "$k = $v \r\n";
}
}
}
it returns the text to write to an .ini file