variable_get() should support a third argument to override caching
clouserw - December 13, 2007 - 19:27
| Project: | Drupal |
| Version: | 7.x-dev |
| Component: | base system |
| Category: | feature request |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Unassigned |
| Status: | active |
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Description
variable_get() employs caching which is useful most of the time but can be detrimental when it's important to guarantee the newest value from the database. Providing a third boolean argument to variable_get() could make it query the database and retrieve the latest value.
(Currently, the only way to get a new value with variable_get() is to clear the entire variable cache with cache_clear_all().)
#1
This might be also useful for install.php, where a variable needs to be retrieved before matching bootstrap (currently done directly via local implementation of a query).
But otherwise, new features (API-changing like this, especially) should go into 7.x as far as I know.
#2
Adding an optional third parameter is a pretty small change. We're not talking about objects that can be extended, so we shouldn't be conflicting with any overloaded methods. I'm suggesting the signature be:
function variable_get($name, $default, $cached=true)
which shouldn't break or change any existing code. I'd recommend targeting 6.x-dev (but I'm not as familiar with your versioning, so I'll just leave it at that).
Thanks.