Where do you store variables?

[JoeMurray]

Drupal has a nice variables tables, but CiviCRM doesn't.

For a number of years we've been using the the option_group and option_value table to store variables for our extensions, even though this isn't exactly what they were for. The nice part was that it allowed us to avoid programming an admin interface to allow system administrators to edit the fields occasionally. We have created a more user friendly interface for a few variables as well.

We've been disappointed that in 4.5 the values for option_values are no longer editable through the user interface (http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,35775.0.html). It seem we should either create a name field like the pattern for other fields in the schema that have machine names, or just revert the removal of edit-ability for the value field in these key-value pairs. Or perhaps create a variable table, or shove them into some serialized blob in a table like settings (not my preference).

So my question is: where do extension developers persist their variables? And should there be a default UI provided so that CiviCRM Admins can edit them easily without having to use a tool like phpMyAdmin that may not be available on some installations?

[totten]

Have you considered the settings system?

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Settings+Reference

The wiki page links to an example from one of Eileen's extensions.

Compared to variables in D7, a setting takes more work (i.e. create the *.setting.php file) but also provides more value (i.e. typing, validation, defaults, more APIs, autowiring HTML widgets, self-documentation, and support in https://civicrm.org/extensions/civiconfigure ).

[JoeMurray]

What do you think of adding an is_active field to https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/blob/master/xml/schema/Core/Setting.xml so that Settings can be controlled via http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/hook_civicrm_managed ?