get magento module config data in Observer

Question

I created a module with an observer for the sales module with event hook ‘sales_order_shipment_save_after’ ,

My module has the following files

1. Company/Modulename/etc/config.xml
2. Company/Modulename/etc/system.xml
3. Company/Modulename/Model/Observer.php

there are four fields in the modules admin configuration fields I want to get those saved data in the Observer class.

using $this->getConfigData(’password’); gives a

Call to undefined method

error Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Magento uses a static method on the global Mage application object to get configuration values

$config = Mage::getStoreConfig('section_name/group/field'); //value
$config = Mage::getStoreConfig('section_name/group'); //array

Answer 2

An amendment to Alan's completely correct answer.

Along with path as first parameter, getStoreConfig also accepts storeid as second parameter(optional).

Well, this is useful when you want to retrieve store-wise values.

Alan has mentioned this point in his own tutorial. I guess, he has not mentioned here just because OP has not mentioned this requirement in his question.

Please refer this

Answer 3

In a shipment module I can use $this->getConfigData for fields in system.xml, but in another kind of modules sometimes not, e.g. extends Mage_Core_Model_Abstract, than I must use getStoreConfig. So the answer is you don't have to use always getStoreConfig. But I don't know why ...

Answer: getConfigData is just defined in a shipment class and uses getStoreConfig too. A little confusing that some functions are extra defined and unneeded in fact ...