Loading second app into its own namespace - which database will it use?

Question

As the subject says, really.

Assume I have two apps, namespaced as App_A and App_B. App_A has App_B imported as a git submodule and then autoloaded via its composer.json.

When I call App_B\SomeModel->someMethod() from an App_A controller, will the model query the database configured in App_B's config files, or will it inherit the config values from App_A?

Answer 1

Short answer: it won't inherit App_B's config files.

Expanded answer: App_A is loaded with it's config files. You call App_B\SomeModel::someMethod() from App_A, App_A's configuration will be used. To have two independent applications with 'knowledge' of each others state you would need to define a communication method between the two such as Message Queues(MQ), HTTP, Sockets, Streams etc etc. You would also never import App_B as a submodule of App_A and vice versa unless you're ok with App_*'s classes being used in the context of the loaded application stack.

Another option is to look at the HMVC or Heirarchical MVC pattern. This could possibly give you a solution to this problem without keeping the applications separate. There was a bundle in Laravel 3 enabling HMVC but I haven't looked into it since then as it (imo) is an anti-pattern. I don't know if one exists for Laravel 4 or 5.