Codeigniter dynamic database connection

Question

I am a beginner at php/OOP and have a question about dynamically changing my database connection.

Here is what my main.php looks like:

Answer 1

You should provide the all database information in application/config/database.php´

Normally, you would set the default database group, like so:

$db['default']['hostname'] = "localhost";
$db['default']['username'] = "root";
$db['default']['password'] = "";
$db['default']['database'] = "database_name";
$db['default']['dbdriver'] = "mysql";
$db['default']['dbprefix'] = "";
$db['default']['pconnect'] = TRUE;
$db['default']['db_debug'] = FALSE;
$db['default']['cache_on'] = FALSE;
$db['default']['cachedir'] = "";
$db['default']['char_set'] = "utf8";
$db['default']['dbcollat'] = "utf8_general_ci";
$db['default']['swap_pre'] = "";
$db['default']['autoinit'] = TRUE;
$db['default']['stricton'] = FALSE;

Notice that the login information and settings are provided in the array named $db['default'].

You can then add another database in a new array - let's call it 'anotherdb'.

$db['anotherdb']['hostname'] = "localhost";
$db['anotherdb']['username'] = "root";
$db['anotherdb']['password'] = "";
$db['anotherdb']['database'] = "another_database_name";
$db['anotherdb']['dbdriver'] = "mysql";
$db['anotherdb']['dbprefix'] = "";
$db['anotherdb']['pconnect'] = TRUE;
$db['anotherdb']['db_debug'] = FALSE;
$db['anotherdb']['cache_on'] = FALSE;
$db['anotherdb']['cachedir'] = "";
$db['anotherdb']['char_set'] = "utf8";
$db['anotherdb']['dbcollat'] = "utf8_general_ci";
$db['anotherdb']['swap_pre'] = "";
$db['anotherdb']['autoinit'] = TRUE;
$db['anotherdb']['stricton'] = FALSE;

Now if you want to use the second database, just go

$DB_another = $this->load->database('anotherdb', TRUE); 

and then, instead of $this->db->foo() , you will you $DB_another->foo()

and you can extend this to multiple groups like this

 $DB2 = $this->load->database('anotherdb1', TRUE); 
 $DB3 = $this->load->database('anotherdb2', TRUE); 

For details have a look here: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/database/connecting.html

Answer 2

$this->load->database($connectdb);

The problem is here, you load this variable in the constructor that you set in your index function.

__constructor() is fired before index() so i guess you should do something like this:

class Main extends CI_Controller {
private $connectdb;

function __construct()
{

    parent::__construct();

    /* Standard Libraries of codeigniter are required */
    $this->_setConnectdb();
    $this->load->database($this->connectdb);
    $this->load->helper('url');
    $this->load->library('grocery_CRUD');
}

public function _setConnectdb()
{
if ( $_POST["username"] == "root" ) {
    $this->connectdb = "default";
}

if ( $_POST["username"] == "user1" ) {
    $this->connectdb = "default1";
}

if ( $_POST["username"] == "user2" ) {
    $this->connectdb = "default2";
}