PHP: optimum configuration storage?

Question

My application gets configured via a lot of key/values (let\'s say 30.000 for instance)

I want to find the best deployment method for these configurations, knowing that

Answer 1

How about in a database?

With a schema like this:

| key | value |

You could have data like this:

| currency | pound |
| timezone | GMT   |

It also means you can query it like this:

SELECT * FROM options WHERE key = 'timezone'

Or even return many options:

SELECT * FROM options WHERE key IN ('timezone','currency')

This can be in any kind of database, not least an SQLite database. If you're using a language such as PHP you can use ADOdb for database abstraction so your application is portable between different database types, just a thought if you were concerned about being tied down to one database.