Horde 4 Configuration

Several proposals for ways that configurations will change in Horde 4.

Replace .dist files with .local.php files.

In order to reduce the amount of up-front configuration needed, I propose that we either:

1. Have standard defaults for all configurations, and have configuration files be optional for specifying local changes.
2. Have the standard config files (currently the *.dist files) as the .php versions, and have .local.php files which are included if present for local modifications.

Config objects.

Configuration data needs to be encapsulated instead of being thrown around in the global scope. Having a general Horde_Config class, with the defaults in that class, would allow for easy implementation of option #1 above.

Config vs. preferences

In many cases config options should be controllable as policies, either on a per-user or some other larger but not site-wide basis. This should also integrate with vhosting support (i.e., a config policy per vhost). See Project/HordePolicy and perhaps Project/HordeSpaces as well.

Configuration GUI

All options, whether this is MIME helpers, preferences, configuration settings, etc., should be settable from the configuration GUI.