Update laravel config file permanently through a dedicated view

Question

I created a Laravel application with a view which is a form that contains some input fields populated by a laravel configuration file "config.options".

I want to update this file through this particular view, I am talking about a standard php file in config folder, not database stuffs.

To do this, in my controller I have an update method like this

LARAVEL PHP CONTROLLER

    <?php
    
    namespace App\Http\Controllers;
    
    use Illuminate\Http\Request;
    /*VarExporter is just a library to beautify parsed arrays instead of using var_export*/
    use Brick\VarExporter\VarExporter;
    
    class SettingsController extends Controller
    {
    
        
     public function update(Request $request){
            
            $values = $request->validate([
        
                "support_mail" => ['required', 'email:rfc,dns'],
                "api_endpoint" => ['required','URL']
        
            ]);
        
            $config = (object) config('options');
        
            $config->support_mail = $request->support_mail;
            $config->api_endpoint= $request->api_endpoint;
        
            $newConfig = VarExporter::export(
                             (array) $config,
                             VarExporter::INLINE_SCALAR_LIST | VarExporter::ADD_RETURN
                         );
        
        
            if( \File::put(base_path() . '/config/options.php', "<?php\n\n". $newConfig) ) {
                
                \Artisan::call('config:clear');
        
                return back()->with('message', 'Settings updated');
        
            }
        
        }

What I am doing here is:

Recall the configuration as an object into $newConfig variable
Update the requested values into $newConfig
Write the configuration file with the new configuration
Clear the configuration cache
Turn back with succesfull message.

This is simply working, no doubt about this, problem is that when I turn back in the view after successfull submit, the input fields are not updated, but if I wait 2 seconds and refresh the page the configuration looks updated. So I tried to sleep 2 seconds

sleep(2);
return back()->with('message', 'Settings updated');

before returning and fields are updated, is like when I refresh the cache it takes some time to update the configuration, or at least more then the time that it takes to refresh the page.

I really tried everything but I cannot find a way out, obviosly I know that I can do this through database, but I want to understand how to do this in this way just for educational purposes. I'm supposing that I have to do a sort of loop every second to check if the configuration cache is clear and then turn back, but I cannot understand where is the configuration cache stored, because framework/cache/data looks empty

UPDATE

just to exclude something related to caching of configuration, I tried to do the same thing using an unrelated framework file, and instead of the config helper, I used require of canonical PHP language and file_put_contents. The result is exactly the same.. so I'm thinking something about the management of file system by php, I don't think is laravel related.

UPDATE 2

Ok so.. if I Log

file_get_contents(base_path() . '/config/options.php')

instead of

config('options')

after submiting, the data will be updated.. so is something related with the config helper I think

Did you try using route() helper for redirect instead of back() method. — Erkan Özkök, Jan 17 '23 at 17:19
@ErkanÖzkök yes it's the same even with redirect, I can clearly see config file updated in vscode but it takes around 2 seconds to show the input fields updated — silvered.dragon, Jan 17 '23 at 17:31
Can you add before return Artisan::call('config:clear'); instead of sleep — Erkan Özkök, Jan 17 '23 at 17:33

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 18 '23 at 15:16

Ok I found it, after 1 milion checks trying to understand if it was related to the laravel ecosystem or something server side, I found that it was opcache, obviously it was opcache,because for opcache a file with data is just a script so it's cached, and it takes around 1.5s in my case to renew the cache after changes. Sometimes when you work with frameworks you forget about the basics of the main language. You can use

opcache_reset();

to fix this after submitting data

Update laravel config file permanently through a dedicated view

1 Answers1