Database Connection

Connect to the database of your choice

Configuration

Before we can establish a connection with a database, we first need to configure .env file to have our database credentials.

If you don't have a .env file. You can duplicate the .env.example file.

In Linux, Unix and Powershell terminals you can use cp command to make a copy of the file

cp .env.example .env

Your .env file should now be created with all the necessary variables

DB_DRIVER=mysql
DB_NAME=pine
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_CHARSET=utf8mb4

APP_DEBUG=true

Notice how we have the variables with DB_ prefix. All of those variables are used to confgure the database.

Important:

It's important to add sensitive information only in .env file as it's added in .gitignore so it's not added to source control. This is done so that sensitive information is not accidentally made public such as your database passwords, API tokens, application secrets, etc.

Make sure to change DB_ variables in .env file before continuing. Most databases have a default user called root in local development.

Supported Databases

In our provided example env file, the default driver is mysql but you can use any database which has the same structure of URI as mysql databases. Currently supported databases by default are:

  • MySql
  • MariaDB
  • PostgreSQL (pgsql)
  • Microsoft SQL Server (mssql)
  • Cockroach DB

It is important to note, for each driver that you wish to use, you must also have it's respective PHP extension enabled as well.

For the listed databases above, following extensions are required respectively

  • MySql: pdo_mysql
  • MariaDB: pdo_mysql
  • PostgreSQL: pdo_pgsql
  • MSSQL: pdo_sqlsrv
  • CockroachDB: pdo_pgsql

Internally, we use the following code

$dsn = "{$config['driver']}:host={$config['host']};dbname={$config['database']};charset={$config['charset']}";

If you wish to use a separate database, you may want to edit the structure of DSN as per your database requirements. It can be found in src/App/Database.php. You may also want to add more connection/database details in config file src/config/db.php. Moreover, the base model src/App/BaseModel.php can be edited as needed for your database.