Configuring the database

General

To configure the database connection both files, config.yml and paramters.yml are used (see also the Symfony Documentation). While the config.yml file contains only the placeholders, the values for the database connection are placed in the paramters.yml.

You can find examples for the Configuration in our Installation Instructions, for example in the chapter Configuration of Mapbender3 on Ubuntu and Debian.

Doctrine

In Mapbender3 we use Doctrine which is a set of PHP libraries and offers an Object Relational Mapper and a Database Abstraction Layer. Visit the Doctrine project page and read more.

Database definition

The standard database definition in the config.yml looks like this:

doctrine:
    dbal:
        driver:   %database_driver%
        host:     %database_host%
        port:     %database_port%
        dbname:   %database_name%
        path:     %database_path%
        user:     %database_user%
        password: %database_password%
        charset:  UTF8
        logging: %kernel.debug%
        profiling: %kernel.debug%
    orm:
        auto_generate_proxy_classes: %kernel_debug%
        auto_mapping:true

All values encapsulated in % are parameters, loaded from the parameters.yml. The parameters.yml will load these parameters. Therefore, to change the database, modify the parameters values in the parameters.yml.

• database_driver: The driver of the database. Possible values are:
  • pdo_sqlite - SQLite PDO driver
  • pdo_mysql - MySQL PDO driver
  • pdo_pgsql - PostgreSQL PDO driver
  • oci8 - Oracle OCI8 driver
  • pdo_oci - Oracle PDO driver

Please keep in mind, that you have installed resp. activated the appropriate PHP-driver.

• database_host: The host, where the database is installed. Either the name (e.g. localhost) or the IP-address (e.g.. 127.0.0.1).
• database_port: The port, on which the database listens (e.g. 5432 for PostgreSQL).
• database_name: The Name of the database (e.g. mapbender3). Create the database and the scheme with doctrine:database:create resp. doctrine:schema:create, see Installation Instructions for details.
• database_path: The %database_path% is the path to a SQLite database. If you don’t use a SQLite database, don’t delete the parameter from the parameters.yml though. Just put in as a value a tilde (~) or null.
• database_user: Username for the connection to the database.
• database_password: The password of the database-user.
• charset: The codepage that the database uses.
• logging: This options sets, that all SQL statements are not logged. (Default: %kernel.debug%). Further information.
• profiling: This option handles the profiling of SQL statements. This option can be switched off in production environments (Default: %kernel.debug%).

Using multiple databases

Using multiple databases is easy with Mapbender3 and advised if you want to separate your own data from Mapbender’s. This is useful in a scenario where you have your own custom code provided by an non-Mapbender bundle.

There’s always a default database connection and all Mapbender code assumes that it can access it’s data using that default database connection.

So if your code wants to use a different database you have to define a second named database connection and always use that named database connection.

• Write the additional parameter “default_connection”. This is the database-connection that Mapbender3 uses as the default (e.g. default_connection: default or default_connection: search_db).

Here is an example for a database connection block in the config.yml with two connections:

doctrine:
    dbal:
        default_connection: default
        connections:
            default:
                driver:   %database_driver%
                host:     %database_host%
                port:     %database_port%
                dbname:   %database_name%
                path:     %database_path%
                user:     %database_user%
                password: %database_password%
                charset:  UTF8
                logging: %kernel.debug%
                profiling: %kernel.debug%
            search_db:
                driver:   %database2_driver%
                host:     %database2_host%
                port:     %database2_port%
                dbname:   %database2_name%
                path:     %database2_path%
                user:     %database2_user%
                password: %database2_password%
                charset:  UTF8
                logging: %kernel.debug%
                profiling: %kernel.debug%

The definition of the database variables is done in the file parameters.yml.

parameters:
    # database-connection "default"
    database_driver:   pdo_pgsql
    database_host:     localhost
    database_port:     5432
    database_name:     mapbender3
    database_path:     ~
    database_user:     postgres
    database_password: postgres

    # database-connection "search_db"
    database2_driver:   pdo_pgsql
    database2_host:     localhost
    database2_port:     5432
    database2_name:     search_db
    database2_path:     ~
    database2_user:     postgres
    database2_password: postgres