How to create a global variable inside config.php

Question

I'm trying to build a simple config bootstrap for use in multi-server environments. I realise there are lots of config bootstraps around, but a lot of the popular ones seem a bit complicated for what I need (and feel comfortable with) at this stage. I'm currently using this for the database.php file.

I want to create a global variable (or another type of variable that can be used in the same way) inside the config.php file, and then be able to output it inside the templates - how would I go about doing this?

I've tried creating this and adding it to the config.php file:

$config['my_google_analytics_key'] = 'UA-XXXXXXX-XX';

But entering {my_google_analytics_key} inside my templates outputs {my_google_analytics_key} rather than UA-XXXXXXX-XX.

So I'm obviously going about this the wrong way, but I'm not sure what steps I'm missing. Thanks.

Answer 1

Take a look at your main index.php file, you should see this line:

//  $assign_to_config['global_vars'] = array(); // This array must be associative

Once that's uncommented and populated the variables should be available in your templates. For example:

$assign_to_config['global_vars'] = array('analytics_key' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-XX');

That should be available as {analytics_key} in any template.

If you'd prefer to set the variables in config.php you can, but you need to explicitly set the scope of the $assign_to_config variable:

global $assign_to_config;
$assign_to_config['global_vars'] = array(
    'analytics_key'  => 'UA-XXXXXXX-XX',
    'something_else' => 'ABC',
    'another_one'    => '12345'
);

Answer 2

Instead of using an array in index.php is possible to create Template variables inside the template as well.

Developer > Template Manager > Template Variables > Create New

Global Variables can contain text, HTML, javascript, etc. but cannot contain PHP code or ExpressionEngine tags ...

Refer to the official documentation here