Best way to store a PHP App's Settings?

Question

What is the best approach to storing a group of global settings for a custom PHP application? I am working on a personal project (first major one really), and need a method

Answer 1

I generally within my index.php file set up the "required" settings so:

and within my config file:

my_image.jpg">
    http://localhost/public/images/
    
*/
define('CSS', URIPATH.'public/css/');                   // DEFINE DIR: css
define('IMG', URIPATH.'public/images/');                // DEFINE DIR: images   
define('JS', URIPATH.'public/scripts/');                // DEFINE DIR: scripts

// system
define('INC', BASEPATH.'system/includes/');             // DEFINE DIR: includes
define('LIB', BASEPATH.'system/lib/');                  // DEFINE DIR: lib
define('SQL', BASEPATH.'system/sql/');                  // DEFINE DIR: sql

if (DEBUGGER) {
    ini_set('log_errors',TRUE);
    ini_set("error_log", BASEPATH.'system/'."error_log.txt");
}
else {
    ini_set('log_errors',TRUE);
    ini_set("error_log", BASEPATH.'system/'."error_log.txt");
}

$db_info = array(
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'username' => 'root',
    'password' => 'root',
    'database' => 'my_db'
);


/*
to use:
    $db_info = unserialize(DB_INFO);
    echo $db_info['host'];
    echo $db_info['username'];
    echo $db_info['password'];
    echo $db_info['database'];
*/
define('DB_INFO', serialize($db_info));
?>