What best practices should be followed when defining and including configuration files in PHP scripts for email handling?
When defining and including configuration files in PHP scripts for email handling, it is important to store sensitive information such as email server credentials securely. One best practice is to define constants in a separate configuration file and include that file in your email handling scripts. This helps to keep your credentials separate from your main codebase and makes it easier to update them if needed.
// config.php
define('EMAIL_HOST', 'your_email_host');
define('EMAIL_USERNAME', 'your_email_username');
define('EMAIL_PASSWORD', 'your_email_password');
define('EMAIL_PORT', 587);
```
```php
// email_handler.php
include 'config.php';
// Use the defined constants in your email handling code
$transport = (new Swift_SmtpTransport(EMAIL_HOST, EMAIL_PORT))
->setUsername(EMAIL_USERNAME)
->setPassword(EMAIL_PASSWORD);
$mailer = new Swift_Mailer($transport);
// Send email using Swift Mailer