Change: Generalise Config class

Problem Statement

The Hazaar\Application\Config class is currently tightly coupled to application-specific configuration loading and management. Its naming and functionality limit its reuse in other components or libraries that could benefit from a general-purpose JSON-style configuration loader and handler.

Who will benefit?

• Developers working on non-application components or libraries who need configuration management.
• Developers seeking to consolidate configuration loading logic across different parts of a system.
• Hazaar users wanting a more modular and reusable configuration system.

Benefits and risks

Benefits:

• General-purpose configuration support usable outside of application context.
• Improved modularity and reuse of the configuration system.
• Backward compatibility maintained via explicit base path setting.
• Environment management adds flexibility for multi-environment deployments.

Risks:

• Refactoring may require renaming or relocation of code, affecting namespace imports.
• Slight increase in complexity due to environment and base path handling.

Proposed solution

1. Class rename
   Rename Hazaar\Application\Config to Hazaar\Config to reflect a broader scope of use.

2. Support for base path
   Add method setBasePath(string $path) that sets the root directory for resolving configuration files.

3. Support configuration environments
   Add support for enabling/disabling named environments (e.g. production, development) that allow layered config loading.

   $config->setEnvironment('production');

Configs will load base values first, and override them with environment-specific values from subdirectories or suffixed files.

Backward compatibility

The application can continue using the same logic by explicitly calling setBasePath('/path/to/app/config') when initializing the config.

Examples

New usage:

use Hazaar\Config;

$config = new Config();
$config->setBasePath('/etc/mycomponent/config');
$config->setEnvironment('production');
$config->load('server');

$setting = $config->get('feature.enabled');

Application context:

$appConfig = new \Hazaar\Config();
$appConfig->setBasePath(APP_PATH . '/config');
$appConfig->setEnvironment(getenv('APP_ENV'));
$appConfig->load('application');

Priority/Severity

• High (This will bring a huge increase in performance/productivity/usability/legislative cover)
• Medium (This will bring a good increase in performance/productivity/usability)
• Low (anything else e.g., trivial, minor improvements)