Configuration API#

Silverstripe CMS comes with a comprehensive code based configuration system through the Config class. It primarily relies on declarative YAML files, and falls back to procedural PHP code, as well as PHP static variables. This is provided by the silverstripe/config library.

The Configuration API can be seen as separate from other forms of variables in the Silverstripe CMS system due to three properties API:

• Configuration is per class, not per instance.
• Configuration is normally set once during initialization and then not changed.
• Configuration is normally set by a knowledgeable technical user, such as a developer, not the end user.

Configuration properties#

Configuration values are private static properties on any class in a Silverstripe CMS module or project code. The API documentation will also list the configuration properties for the class. They should be marked private static, be listed at the top of the class, and follow the lower_case_with_underscores structure.

namespace App;

use SilverStripe\View\ViewableData;

class MyClass extends ViewableData
{
    private static $option_one = true;

    private static $option_two = [];
}

Accessing and setting configuration properties#

This can be done by calling the static method Config::inst(), like so:

use App\MyClass;
use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Config;

$configValue = Config::inst()->get(MyClass::class, 'option_one');

Or through the static config() method on the class, if the class uses (either directly or through inheritance) the Configurable trait.

use App\MyClass;

$optionOneValue = static::config()->get('option_one');
$optionTwoValue = MyClass::config()->get('option_two');

You may need to apply the Configurable trait in order to access the config() method.

namespace App;

use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Configurable;

class MyOtherClass
{
    use Configurable;
}

Note that by default Config::inst() returns only an immutable version of config. Use Config::modify() if it's necessary to alter class config. This is generally undesirable in most applications, as modification of the config can immediately have performance implications, so this should be used sparingly, or during testing to modify state.

Note that while both objects have similar methods the APIs differ slightly. The below actions are equivalent:

• Config::inst()->get('Class', 'property'); or Class::config()->get('property')
• Config::inst()->uninherited('Class', 'property'); or Class::config()->get('property', Config::UNINHERITED)
• Config::inst()->exists('Class', 'property'); or Class::config()->exists('property')

And mutable methods:

• Config::modify()->merge('Class', 'property', 'newvalue'); or Class::config()->merge('property', 'newvalue')
• Config::modify()->set('Class', 'property', 'newvalue'); or Class::config()->set('property', 'newvalue')
• Config::modify()->remove('Class', 'property'); or Class::config()->remove('property')

To set those configuration options on our previously defined class we can define it in a YAML file.

App\MyClass:
  option_one: false
  option_two:
    - Foo
    - Bar
    - Baz

To use those variables in your application code:

use App\MyClass;
use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Config;

$me = new MyClass();

echo $me->config()->option_one;
// returns false

echo implode(', ', $me->config()->option_two);
// returns 'Foo, Bar, Baz'

echo Config::inst()->get('MyClass', 'option_one');
// returns false

echo implode(', ', Config::inst()->get('MyClass', 'option_two'));
// returns 'Foo, Bar, Baz'

Config::modify()->set('MyClass', 'option_one', true);

echo Config::inst()->get('MyClass', 'option_one');
// returns true

// You can also use the static version
MyClass::config()->option_two = [
    'Qux',
];

echo implode(', ', MyClass::config()->option_one);
// returns 'Qux'

Configuration values#

Each configuration property can contain either a literal value ('foo'), integer (2), boolean (true) or an array. If the value is an array, each value in the array may also be one of those types.

The value of any specific class configuration property comes from several sources. These sources do not override each other - instead the values from each source are merged together to give the final configuration value, using these rules:

• If the value is an array, each array is added to the beginning of the composite array in ascending priority order. If a higher priority item has a non-integer key which is the same as a lower priority item, the value of those items is merged using these same rules, and the result of the merge is located in the same location the higher priority item would be if there was no key clash. Other than in this key-clash situation, within the particular array, order is preserved. To override a value that is an array, the value must first be set to null, and then set again to the new array.

---
Name: arrayreset
---
Class\With\Array\Config:
  an_array: null
---
Name: array
---
Class\With\Array\Config:
  an_array: ['value_a', 'value_b']

• If the value is not an array, the highest priority value is used without any attempt to merge

The locations that configuration values are taken from in highest -> lowest priority order are:

• Runtime modifications, ie: any values set via a call to Config::inst()->update()
• The configuration values taken from the YAML files in _config/ directories (internally sorted in before / after order, where the item that is latest is highest priority)
• Any static set on the class named the same as the name of the property
• The composite configuration value of the parent class of this class
• Any static set on an "additional static source" class (such as an extension) named the same as the name of the property

Configuration masks#

At some of these levels you can also set masks. These remove values from the composite value at their priority point rather than add.

use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Config;

$actionsWithoutExtra = $this->config()->get(
    'allowed_actions',
    Config::UNINHERITED
);

Available masks include:

• Config::UNINHERITED - Exclude config inherited from parent classes
• Config::EXCLUDE_EXTRA_SOURCES - Exclude config applied by extensions

You can also pass in literal true to disable all extra sources, or merge config options with bitwise | operator.

Configuration YAML syntax and rules#

Each module can have a directory immediately underneath the main module directory called _config/. Inside this directory you can add YAML files that contain values for the configuration system.

The structure of each YAML file is a series of headers and values separated by YAML document separators.

---
Name: adminroutes
After:
    - '#rootroutes'
    - '#coreroutes'
---
SilverStripe\Control\Director:
  rules:
    'admin': 'SilverStripe\Admin\AdminRootController'
---

Each value section of a YAML file has:

• A reference path, made up of the module name, the config file name, and a fragment identifier Each path looks a little like a URL and is of this form: module/file#fragment.
• A set of rules for the value section's priority relative to other value sections
• A set of rules that might exclude the value section from being used

The fragment identifier component of the reference path and the two sets of rules are specified for each value section in the header section that immediately precedes the value section.

• "module" is the name of the module this YAML file is in.
• "file" is the name of this YAML file, stripped of the extension (so for routes.yml, it would be routes).
• "fragment" is a specified identifier. It is specified by putting a Name: {fragment} key / value pair into the header section. If you don't specify a name, a random one will be assigned.

This reference path has no affect on the value section itself, but is how other header sections refer to this value section in their priority chain rules.

Before / after priorities#

Values for a specific class property can be specified in several value sections across several modules. These values are merged together using the same rules as the configuration system as a whole.

However unlike the configuration system, there is no inherent priority amongst the various value sections.

Instead, each value section can have rules that indicate priority. Each rule states that this value section must come before (lower priority than) or after (higher priority than) some other value section.

To specify these rules you add an "After" and/or "Before" key to the relevant header section. The value for these keys is a list of reference paths to other value sections. A basic example:

---
Name: adminroutes
After:
    - '#rootroutes'
    - '#coreroutes'
---
SilverStripe\Control\Director:
  rules:
    'admin': 'SilverStripe\Admin\AdminRootController'
---

You do not have to specify all portions of a reference path. Any portion may be replaced with a wildcard "*", or left out all together. Either has the same affect - that portion will be ignored when checking a value section's reference path, and will always match. You may even specify just "*", which means "all value sections".

When a particular value section matches both a Before and an After rule, this may be a problem. Clearly one value section can not be both before and after another. However when you have used wildcards, if there was a difference in how many wildcards were used, the one with the least wildcards will be kept and the other one ignored.

The value section above has two rules:

• It must be merged in before (lower priority than) all other value sections
• It must be merged in after (higher priority than) any value section with a fragment name of "rootroutes"

In this case there would appear to be a problem - adminroutes can not be both before all other value sections and after value sections with a name of rootroutes. However because \* has three wildcards (it is the equivalent of \*/\*#\*) but #rootroutes only has two (it is the equivalent of \*/\*#rootroutes).

In this case \* means "every value section except ones that have a fragment name of rootroutes".

Exclusionary rules#

Some value sections might only make sense under certain environmental conditions - a class exists, a module is installed, an environment variable or constant is set, or Silverstripe CMS is running in a certain environment mode (live, dev, etc).

To accommodate this, value sections can be filtered to only be used when either a rule matches or doesn't match the current environment.

To achieve this, add a key to the related header section, either Only when the value section should be included only when all the rules contained match, or Except when the value section should be included except when all of the rules contained match.

You then list any of the following rules as sub-keys, with informational values as either a single value or a list.

• classexists, in which case the value(s) should be classes that must exist
• moduleexists, in which case the value(s) should be modules that must exist. This supports either folder name or composer vendor/name format.
• environment, in which case the value(s) should be one of "live", "test" or "dev" to indicate the Silverstripe CMS mode the site must be in
• envvarset, in which case the value(s) should be environment variables that must be set
• constantdefined, in which case the value(s) should be constants that must be defined
• envorconstant, a variable which should be defined either via environment vars or constants (and optionally be set to a specific value)
• extensionloaded, in which case the PHP extension(s) must be loaded

For instance, to add a property to "foo" when a module exists, and "bar" otherwise, you could do this:

---
Only:
  moduleexists: 'MyFineModule'
---
App\MyClass:
  property: 'foo'
---
Except:
  moduleexists: 'MyFineModule'
---
App\MyClass:
  property: 'bar'
---

Multiple conditions of the same type can be declared via array format

---
Only:
  moduleexists:
    - 'silverstripe/blog'
    - 'silverstripe/lumberjack'
---

The envorconstant rule allows you to get even more specific by also directly comparing values of environment variables and constants. In this example, both TEST_ENV and TEST_CONST have to be defined and set to certain values:

---
Only:
  envorconstant:
    TEST_ENV: 'example'
    TEST_CONST: true
---

Unit tests#

Sometimes, it's necessary to change a configuration value in your unit tests. One way to do this is to use the withConfig method. This is especially handy when using data providers. Example below shows one unit test using a data provider. This unit test changes configuration before testing functionality. The test will run three times, each run with different configuration value. Note that the configuration change is active only within the callback function.

namespace App\Test\Service;

use App\Service\MyService;
use SilverStripe\Config\Collections\MutableConfigCollectionInterface;
use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Config;
use SilverStripe\Dev\SapphireTest;

class MyServiceTest extends SapphireTest
{
    /**
     * @dataProvider testValuesProvider
     * @param string $value
     * @param string $expected
     */
    public function testConfigValues($value, $expected)
    {
        $result = Config::withConfig(function (MutableConfigCollectionInterface $config) use ($value) {
            // update your config
            $config->set(MyService::class, 'some_setting', $value);

            // your test code goes here and it runs with your changed config
            return MyService::singleton()->executeSomeFunction();
        });

        // your config change no longer applies here as it's outside of callback

        // assertions can be done here but also inside the callback function
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $result);
    }

    public function testValuesProvider(): array
    {
        return [
            ['test value 1', 'expected value 1'],
            ['test value 2', 'expected value 2'],
            ['test value 3', 'expected value 3'],
        ];
    }
}

API documentation#

• Config

Related lessons#

• DataExtensions and SiteConfig