One of the ways that I have solved this and issues like it in the past has been to create a DBConfig.pm file somewhere in the list of directories pointed to by @INC.

A sample sniglet looks like:

package DBConfig;

sub new {
           $self = { 
                     ORACLE_HOME => '/home/oracle',
                     SYBASE_HOME => '/home/sybase',
                     DBParms=>{
                       oracle => {
                         host => 'oraclehost',
                         user => 'user',
                         password => 'secret'
                        }
            
           };
    bless $self;
    return $self;
}

<snip!>

To instantiate the information:

use DBConfig;
use DBI;

my $dbconf=new DBConfig;
#
# Some hand waving here...
my $dbh=DBI->connect(
                       $dbconf->{DBParms}->{oracle}->{user}
               ...etc....

You get the idea I hope.

Now if the database information changes OR you add a supported database you just have to edit one place.

A very cute extension to this idea that I saw recently was to read in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file and parse it to get data for individual application databases

Hope this helps.

Here's my stab at trying to figure out the best approach.

	Advantage	Disadvantage
Via Perl	no need for apache admin access, ability to change on the fly, no need to stop/start apache on changes	annoying code to keep track of meta data - especially if it never changes
Via Apache	Set it once and forget it, nothing special to do in code, meta data stays separated from code	Need to stop/start apache when it changes, gives devs a "how the heck does that work" headache if unaware of apache conf settings

-derby

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ ls -l
total 2
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None          320 Jul  8 11:47 configure.
+ac
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None          231 Jul  8 11:48 test.in

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ cat configure.ac 
AC_INIT( test, 1.0 )


dnl 
AC_DEFUN([AC_ORACLE_HOME],[dnl

AC_MSG_CHECKING(Checking for oracle home)
if test -z "$ORACLE_HOME"; then
AC_ERROR(No oracle home env var)
else
AC_MSG_RESULT(ok)
AC_SUBST( ORACLE_HOME, "$ORACLE_HOME" )
fi
])dnl
dnl 


AC_ORACLE_HOME( ORACLE_HOME )


AC_OUTPUT( [ test] )

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ cat test.in 
#!/bin/sh
####################################################
### This script is intended as a example of how to 
### use autoconf to determine ORACLE_HOME.
####################################################
@ORACLE_HOME@

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ autoconf

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ ls -l
total 65
drwxr-xr-x+   2 LameNerd     None            0 Jul  8 11:48 autom4te.c
+ache
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None        64409 Jul  8 11:48 configure
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None          320 Jul  8 11:47 configure.
+ac
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None          231 Jul  8 11:48 test.in

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ ./configure
checking Checking for oracle home... ok
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating test

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ ls -l
total 90
drwxr-xr-x+   2 LameNerd     None            0 Jul  8 11:48 autom4te.c
+ache
-rw-rw-rw-    1 LameNerd     None         3630 Jul  8 11:49 config.log
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None        19840 Jul  8 11:48 config.sta
+tus
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None        64409 Jul  8 11:48 configure
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None          320 Jul  8 11:47 configure.
+ac
-rw-rw-rw-    1 LameNerd     None          227 Jul  8 11:49 test
-rwxrwxrwx    1 LameNerd     None          231 Jul  8 11:48 test.in

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$ cat test
#!/bin/sh
####################################################
### This script is intended as a example of how to 
### use autoconf to determine ORACLE_HOME.
####################################################
d:\Oracle\Ora81

LameNerd@maxtrix6 ~/scripts_IN/conf_test
$
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