Using MySQL on Openshift with Symfony 2 - mysql

Question

I added MySQL, and PHPMyAdmin cartridges to my openshift php app.
After mysql cartridge was added I saw the page which says:
Connection URL: mysql://$OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_HOST:$OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PORT/
but I have no idea what does it mean.
When I access mysql database through PHPMyAdmin,
I see 127.8.111.1 as db host, so I configured my symfony 2 app (parameters.yml):
parameters:
database_driver: pdo_mysql
database_host: 127.8.111.1
database_port: 3306
database_name: <some_database>
database_user: admin
database_password: <some_password>
Now when I access my web page it throws an error, which I believe related to mysql connection. Can someone show me proper way of doing the above?
EDIT: It seems mysql connection works fine, but somehow
Error 101 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET): Unknown error
is thrown.

Answer 1

The code I use and works very well to make my apps working both on localhost and openshift without changing database config parameters every time I move between them is this:
<?php
# app/config/params.php
if (getEnv("OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME")!='') {
$container->setParameter('database_host', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_HOST"));
$container->setParameter('database_port', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PORT"));
$container->setParameter('database_name', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME"));
$container->setParameter('database_user', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_USERNAME"));
$container->setParameter('database_password', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PASSWORD"));
}?>
This will tell the app that if is openshift environment it needs to load different username, host, database, etc.
Then you have to import this file (params.php) from your app/config/config.yml file:
imports:
- { resource: parameters.yml }
- { resource: security.yml }
- { resource: params.php }
...
And that's it. You will never have to touch this file or parameters.yml when you move on openshift or localhost.

Answer 2

Connection URL: mysql://$OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_HOST:$OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PORT/
OpenShift exposes environment variables to your application containing the host and port information for your database. You should reference these environment variables in your configuration instead of hard-coding values. I am not a Symfony expert, but it looks to me like you would need to do the following in order to use this information in your app:
Create a pre-start hook for your application and export variables in Symfony's expected format. Add the following to the .openshift/action_hooks/pre_start_php-5.3 file in your application's git repo:
export SYMFONY__DATABASE__HOST=$OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_HOST
export SYMFONY__DATABASE__PORT=$OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PORT
Symphony uses this pattern to identify external configuration in the environment, and will make the this configuration available for use in your YAML configuration:
parameters:
database_driver: pdo_mysql
database_host: "%database.host%"
database_port: "%database.port%"
EDIT:
Another option to expose this information for use in the YAML configuration is to import a php file in your app/config/config.yml:
imports:
- { resource: parameters.php }
In app/config/parameters.php:
$container->setParameter('database.host', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_HOST"));
$container->setParameter('database.port', getEnv("OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PORT"));