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The databases.yml Configuration File

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- Propel
- Doctrine

The databases.yml configuration allows for the configuration of the database connection. It is used by both ORMs bundled with symfony: Propel and Doctrine.

The main databases.yml configuration file for a project can be found in the config/ directory.

note

Most of the time, all applications of a project share the same database. That's why the main database configuration file is in the project config/ directory. You can of course override the default configuration by defining a databases.yml configuration file in your application configuration directories.

As discussed in the introduction, the databases.yml file is environment-aware, benefits from the configuration cascade mechanism, and can include constants.

Each connection described in databases.yml must include a name, a database handler class name, and a set of parameters (param) used to configure the database object:

CONNECTION_NAME:
  class: CLASS_NAME
  param: { ARRAY OF PARAMETERS }

The class name should extend the sfDatabase base class.

If the database handler class cannot be autoloaded, a file path can be defined and will be automatically included before the factory is created:

CONNECTION_NAME:
  class: CLASS_NAME
  file:  ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_FILE

note

The databases.yml configuration file is cached as a PHP file; the process is automatically managed by the sfDatabaseConfigHandler class.

tip

The database configuration can also be configured by using the database:configure task. This task updates the databases.yml according to the arguments you pass to it.

Propel

Default Configuration:

dev:
  propel:
    param:
      classname:  DebugPDO
 
test:
  propel:
    param:
      classname:  DebugPDO
 
all:
  propel:
    class:        sfPropelDatabase
    param:
      classname:  PropelPDO
      dsn:        mysql:dbname=##PROJECT_NAME##;host=localhost
      username:   root
      password:   
      encoding:   utf8
      persistent: true
      pooling:    true

The following parameters can be customized under the param section:

Key	Description	Default Value
`classname`	The Propel adapter class	`PropelPDO`
`dsn`	The PDO DSN (required)	-
`username`	The database username	-
`password`	The database password	-
`pooling`	Whether to enable pooling	`true`
`encoding`	The default charset	`utf8`
`persistent`	Whether to create persistent connections	`false`
`options`	A set of Propel options	-

Doctrine

Default Configuration:

all:
  doctrine:
    class:        sfDoctrineDatabase
    param:
      dsn:        mysql:dbname=##PROJECT_NAME##;host=localhost
      username:   root
      password:   
      attributes:
        quote_identifier: false
        use_native_enum: false
        validate: all
        idxname_format: %s_idx
        seqname_format: %s_seq
        tblname_format: %s

The following parameters can be customized under the param section:

Key	Description	Default Value
`dsn`	The PDO DSN (required)	-
`username`	The database username	-
`password`	The database password	-
`encoding`	The default charset	`utf8`
`attributes`	A set of Doctrine attributes	-

The following attributes can be customized under the attributes section:

Key	Description	Default Value
`quote_identifier`	Whether to wrap identifiers with quotes	`false`
`use_native_enum`	Whether to use native enums	`false`
`validate`	Whether to enable data validation	`true`
`idxname_format`	Format for index names	`%s_idx`
`seqname_format`	Format for sequence names	`%s_seq`
`tblname_format`	Format for table names	`%s`

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