PHP Gurus...

[Hitman]

Hey, I need somebody who's good at PHP to explain something to me. I can code alright PHP, like a usersystem or whatever, but the code tends to be messy/not very efficient.

I was looking at OOP... using classes and objects... I have no idea what they are. I looked at a few tuts and explanations and they went right over my head. I really don't understand them. Another thing is functions. I know that a function contains something and you can call that function up but I'm just as confused as to why it's helpful.

If anybody could explain I'd be immensely grateful.

Thanks.

[BoyBetterKnow]

Mm. I find it helpful mainly due to the fact everything can extend each other if needed but I like private variables the most. They have come in so handy when I've been doing template classes.

For instance, if I was to do:

$template = new template('templateName');

then on __construct aka public function __construct I would store the templateName as a private variable yeh.

Then I could do stuff like

$template->setHeader('Title of Page');
$template->setContent('Content of page');
$template->setFooter('Footer of Page');
$template->setNavigation('Home', 'About', 'News', 'Blog');

And perhaps the navigation pages are db driven or w/e

Then setHeader, setContent, setFooter, setNavigation would be functions in the template class.

Then you would have

private $templateName;
private $templateHeader;
private $templateContent ;
private $templateFooter;
private $templateNavigation;

inside the template class.

Then at the end you can do

$template->render();

and it would take in all the private variables, set by the page with them simple functions and load the correct template file etc. The render would do the str_replace or w/e.

So it's this

<?php

include 'template.class.php';

$template->setHeader('Title of Page');
$template->setContent('Content of page');
$template->setFooter('Footer of Page');
$template->setNavigation('Home', 'About', 'News', 'Blog');

?>

VS.

<?php

include 'functions.php';

template('Title of Page', 'Content of Page', 'Footer of page', array(cba to do array);

?>

or you could do seperate procedural functions to get the parts of the template out.

There is so many more things you could then do with the template stuff or w/e. OOP is just better. Learn it slowly. I used to use it solely for organization purposes but there are many more bonus'. I am really not the right person to explain but I tried.

[Hitman]

That's all well and good but I don't understand hardly any of it! I don't actually understand how it works, what the classes do, etc.

But thanks for replying.

[BoyBetterKnow]

Right. For example.

We have an init file.

<?php

include_once 'database.core.php';

$database = new database();

?>

Now, I could change that around and have this.

<?php

// Include configuration file.
include_once 'config.php';

include_once 'database.core.php';

$database = new database($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName);

and have my config file like this

<?php

$dbHost = 'localhost';
$dbUsername = 'Username';
$dbPassword = 'Password';
$dbName = 'dbname';

Then this part in our init.php file:

$database = new database($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName);

That is basically saying

$database = new database('localhost', 'Username', 'Password', 'dbname');

as you probably know. So it is creating our database class and sending variables to it.

Now, to handle those variables, I would do something along the lines of:

<?php

class database {
        
    function __construct($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName){
        
        // Mysql connection jazz goes here using them connection details.
        
    }
        
}

__construct is basically run when you do new object.

So in this case I do new database in my php which tells the script or w/e to check for a construct in my database class. You have done functions before so you match them yeh and you can connect using them. Doing $database = new database() blah is a nice easy way of doing it. You can then do things such as set the links for queries to use and theres alot you can do but I'm not going into detail.

[Blob]

Right. For example.

We have an init file.

<?php

include_once 'database.core.php';

$database = new database();

?>

Now, I could change that around and have this.

<?php

// Include configuration file.
include_once 'config.php';

include_once 'database.core.php';

$database = new database($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName);

and have my config file like this

<?php

$dbHost = 'localhost';
$dbUsername = 'Username';
$dbPassword = 'Password';
$dbName = 'dbname';

Then this part in our init.php file:

$database = new database($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName);

That is basically saying

$database = new database('localhost', 'Username', 'Password', 'dbname');

as you probably know. So it is creating our database class and sending variables to it.

Now, to handle those variables, I would do something along the lines of:

<?php

class database {
        
    function __construct($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName){
        
        // Mysql connection jazz goes here using them connection details.
        
    }
        
}

__construct is basically run when you do new object.

So in this case I do new database in my php which tells the script or w/e to check for a construct in my database class. You have done functions before so you match them yeh and you can connect using them. Doing $database = new database() blah is a nice easy way of doing it. You can then do things such as set the links for queries to use and theres alot you can do but I'm not going into detail.

If your loading the config before setting the class up, you might aswell just do this...

Config

<?php
$dbInfo["username"] = "hi";
$dbInfo["password"] = "dontlooks";
$dbInfo["server"] = "localhost";
$dbInfo["database"] = "hi";
?>

Init

<?php
require("Configs/Something.php");
require("Class/Something.php");

$class = new Thing( $dbInfo );
?>

Class

<?php
class Thing
{
    private $dbInfo;
    
    public function __construct( $dbInfo )
    {
        $this->dbInfo = $dbInfo;
        $this->connectDatabase();
    }
    
    private function connectDatabase()
    {
        mysql_connect( $this->dbInfo["username"], etc... );
    }
} 
?>

[BoyBetterKnow]

If your loading the config before setting the class up, you might aswell just do this...

Config

<?php
$dbInfo["username"] = "hi";
$dbInfo["password"] = "dontlooks";
$dbInfo["server"] = "localhost";
$dbInfo["database"] = "hi";
?>

Init

<?php
require("Configs/Something.php");
require("Class/Something.php");

$class = new Thing( $dbInfo );
?>

Class

<?php
class Thing
{
    private $dbInfo;
    
    public function __construct( $dbInfo )
    {
        $this->dbInfo = $dbInfo;
        $this->connectDatabase();
    }
    
    private function connectDatabase()
    {
        mysql_connect( $this->dbInfo["username"], etc... );
    }
} 
?>

Mmm. Indeed I could. But does it really matter? No..

[Protege]

class database
{
    public $core;
    
    public function connect()
    {
        $dbConnect = ( bool ) mysql_connect( $this->core->__dbHost, $this->core->__dbUsername, $this->core->__dbPassword );
        
        if( $dbConnect !== TRUE )
        {
            $this->core->___errorMessage = ( string ) $this->core->languages->___language( 'DbBadConnect' );
            return FALSE;
        }
        
        $dbSelectDb = ( bool ) mysql_select_db( $this->core->__dbDatabase );
        
        if( $dbSelectDb !== TRUE )
        {
            $this->core->___errorMessage = ( string ) $this->core->languages->___language( 'dbBadDatabase' );
            return FALSE;
        }
        
        return TRUE;
    }
/* ...... */
} 

ya can do that instead if you want to.

[BoyBetterKnow]

class database
{
    public $core;
    
    public function connect()
    {
        $dbConnect = ( bool ) mysql_connect( $this->core->__dbHost, $this->core->__dbUsername, $this->core->__dbPassword );
        
        if( $dbConnect !== TRUE )
        {
            $this->core->___errorMessage = ( string ) $this->core->languages->___language( 'DbBadConnect' );
            return FALSE;
        }
        
        $dbSelectDb = ( bool ) mysql_select_db( $this->core->__dbDatabase );
        
        if( $dbSelectDb !== TRUE )
        {
            $this->core->___errorMessage = ( string ) $this->core->languages->___language( 'dbBadDatabase' );
            return FALSE;
        }
        
        return TRUE;
    }
/* ...... */
} 

ya can do that instead if you want to.

Loool you're telling someone who has never used OOP to use that

[Protege]

pretty straight forward

[Blob]

class database
{
    public $core;
    
    public function connect()
    {
        $dbConnect = ( bool ) mysql_connect( $this->core->__dbHost, $this->core->__dbUsername, $this->core->__dbPassword );
        
        if( $dbConnect !== TRUE )
        {
            $this->core->___errorMessage = ( string ) $this->core->languages->___language( 'DbBadConnect' );
            return FALSE;
        }
        
        $dbSelectDb = ( bool ) mysql_select_db( $this->core->__dbDatabase );
        
        if( $dbSelectDb !== TRUE )
        {
            $this->core->___errorMessage = ( string ) $this->core->languages->___language( 'dbBadDatabase' );
            return FALSE;
        }
        
        return TRUE;
    }
/* ...... */
} 

ya can do that instead if you want to.

I use this to connect:

class MySQL {
    public $kernel, $storedFetch;
    private $dbInfo, $dbConnection, $db, $debugConnection, $debugInfo, $storedQuery;
    
    public function __construct( $kernel )
    {
        $this->Kernel = $kernel;
        $this->dbInfo = $this->Kernel->_loadItem( "MySQL", "MySQL.php", "Database/", "Config" );
        $this->_bootDatabase();
    }
        
    private function _bootDatabase( )
    {
        if( empty( $this->dbInfo["Database"] ) !== false )
        {
            $this->Kernel->alert->displayAlert( "warning", 1003 );
            return false;
        }
        
        $dbInfo["Username"] = ( empty( $dbInfo["Username"] ) !== false ) ? "root" : $dbInfo["Username"];
        $dbInfo["Server"] = ( empty( $dbInfo["Server"] ) !== false ) ? "localhost" : $dbInfo["Server"];
        
        $this->dbConnection = @mysql_connect( $this->dbInfo["Server"], $this->dbInfo["Username"], $this->dbInfo["Password"] );
        $this->db = @mysql_select_db( $this->dbInfo["Database"] );
        
        if( $this->dbConnection === false || $this->db === false )
        {
            // Can't connect! Lets try to debug..
            $this->_debugConnection();
        }
    }