server switch statement

Question

l am getting an error in my wordpress dev saying database not found. l have done all the work of importing the up to date database. but its not working and l have a feeling its down to this switch statement in the config file. is there any idea why this is not passing guys? any suggestion would be greately appreciated. thanks

$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] = 'localhost';
switch($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']):

case "elance-assure":

    /** The name of the database for WordPress */
    define('DB_NAME', 'elance');

    /** MySQL database username */
    define('DB_USER', 'elance');

    /** MySQL database password */
    define('DB_PASSWORD', 'elance');

    /** MySQL hostname */
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

default: 

    define('DB_NAME', 'expatass_main');

    /** MySQL database username */
    define('DB_USER', 'expatass_user');

    /** MySQL database password */
    define('DB_PASSWORD', '$}yxr0M+GG4O');

    /** MySQL hostname */
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

endswitch;

Answer 1 · 2015-01-10T02:00:06Z

January 10, 2015 2:00am

Dude your assigning rather than checking $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] in the first line (comment that out).

It's also really not a great idea to deal directly with $_SERVER, or any other super-global in PHP; I know it might seem like you are going around the houses, by not doing this, but it will make your code more DRY and more widely applicable.

I Would also suggest that DEFINES may not be the best way to handle database credentials (in fact it may be one of the worst ways because anyone can type the define DB_PASS and echo it out to users etc).

If you have to do this, save yourself the switch statement and load a JSON file, then directly address the container you want

{
  "default": {
    "name": "...",
    "user": "...",
    "pass": "...",
    "host": "...",
    "port": "..."
  },
  "elance-assure": {
    "name": "...",
    "user": "...",
    "pass": "...",
    "host": "...",
    "port": "..."
  }
}

You can then use PHP to read the file as an array or object (personal preference) pass a default argument of 'default' and get the credentials you need. (FYI still not the best way to handle DB creds for an app)

Sample Hack (Please don't use in production, it's not that good, just better than switch-case hardcoded)

<?php

function getDBCredentials( $site='default' ) {
  $creds = json_decode( file_get_contents( '/path/to/jsonfile.json' ), true );
  if( !is_array( $creds ) ) { return null; } // Maybe throw exception, error whatever for logging
  if( !array_key_exists( 'default', $creds ) ) { return null; } // Maybe throw exception, raise error, whatever for logging
  $site = array_key_exists( $site, $creds ) ? $site : 'default';
  return $creds[ $site ];
}

$isServerDefault = ( stripos( $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'], 'elance-assure' ) !== false ) ? false : true;
$dbCreds = getDBCredentials( ($isServerDefault ? 'default' : 'elance-assure' ) );

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

Kelvin Atawura

Kelvin Atawura

server switch statement

1 Answer

Lewis Cowles

Lewis Cowles

Kelvin Atawura

Kelvin Atawura

Lewis Cowles

Lewis Cowles