function info with globals

[reddymade]

I have the following piece of function code:
Can you please tell me what is globals and i am trying to find a table in the database called SETTINGS_TABLE; I don't see that at all, someone else developod this app. now i am trying to do some modifications and i am totally new to the PHP amd Mysql.

Please help me: Thank you very much for the information.

function registration_page1($err=""){
	global $smarty, $lang, $config, $dbconn, $multi_lang;

///////// user may be not registered
if(isset($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]))
	$file_name = AfterLastSlash($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]); 
else
	$file_name = "registration.php";

LeftMenu("reg_page1");
IndexHomePage();

///// default multilanguage field for select
$field_name = $multi_lang->DefaultFieldName(); 

////////// settings
$strSQL = "select value, name from ".SETTINGS_TABLE." where name in ( 'min_age_limit', 'max_age_limit','zip_letters', 'zip_count') ";
$rs = $dbconn->Execute($strSQL);
while(!$rs->EOF){
	$settings[$rs->fields[1]] = $rs->fields[0];
	$rs->MoveNext();
}