looking for a solution to manage global custom fields

[n00dles101]

you could try my Matrix plugin, unreleased to extend as I haven't had time to do some decent docs for it. but I use it on all my recent sites without issues.

Just setup a table called 'settings' or whatever, then add your fields that you need.
Now add a single record, edit the fields as required.
Then output them on your page using the following code:

**edit** wrong way round above, fixed now

Code:

// query the settings table
$myquery = "select * from settings where id = 1";  
// return the setting into the $result array
$result=DM_query($myquery,DM_SINGLE);

then just echo $result['setting']; // echo whatever field you want.

Let me know if you need any more info.

its available from github to download and use:

https://github.com/n00dles/DM_Matrix