.:] $this->classLoad($php) [:.

August 8th, 2007 – 13:42:40

One of the things I always forget to do when working on something in PHP is “require” or “include” my class definition files, it`s kind of like remembering to import classes in Java — which I always forget to do, thus the reason I use an IDE with the auto-import feature! However, no PHP IDE I have seen has this ability, but, PHP does provide you with a method to write your own auto-import functionality write into your application. Say for example you have the following code:

processUser();
?>

Notice, I forgot to place the following line in my code:

So, what will happen? Naturally, the code won`t compile and you will get a nasty error to let you know that the parser has no idea what a UserFacade is because the class definition has not been loaded. However, right before it raises that nasty little error, the PHP Engine looks for a function called __autoload and tries to run it.

So wait a minute here… That means that I can override that function and write my own implementation for it right? Yes, yes that is exactly what it means. Observe:

/**
 * This method is called automatically by PHP when attempting to classload a
 * file when the definition for the class is not already loaded. This method
 * will use the __findClass() method to locate the class from the base source
 * package and classload the file automagically.
 *
 * @author 		Chris Schmidt 
 * @since 		1.0.0
 * @uses 		__findClass
 * @see 		__findClass
 */
function __autoload( $class ) {
	$package = __findClass( $class );
	if ( $package ) {
		require_once( $package.$class.".php" );
	} else {
		throw new Exception("Class not found: $class");
	}
}

Of course, you will probably need to customize this slightly to your need, and there are a few enhancements that could be made to make this act more like a real “classloader” function.

You will probably notice, if you are already familiar with this kind of function, that I am also using the __autoload function to enforce my naming convention of “package/sub-package/classname.php” which shows another great advantage of using the PHP`s autoloader feature.

Now let`s take a look at this mysterious __findClass function that is returning the answer!

/**
 * Searches the ClassPath and returns the directory where the class we are
 * searching for is located.
 *
 * @param 		string $class
 * 				The Class that we are searching for
 * @param 		string $package		default `/`
 * 				The Package we would like to search forward from
 * @example 	__findClass( "MyClass", "business" );
 * @example 	__findClass( "MyClass", "business/classes" );
 * @return 		string
 */
function __findClass( $class, $package = "/" ) {
	$base_class_path = BASE_PATH;

	if ( !String::endsWith($package, "/")) {
		$package .= "/";
	}

	$searchPackage = $base_class_path.$package;
	$pkg = dir( $searchPackage );

	while ( FALSE !== ( $entry = $pkg->read() ) ) {
		if ( $entry != "." && $entry != ".." ) {
			if ( is_dir( $pkg->path.$entry ) ) {
				$findClass = __findClass( $class, str_ireplace($base_class_path, "", $pkg->path.$entry ));
				if ( $findClass ) {
					$pkg->close();
					return $findClass;
				}
			} else {
				if ( is_file( $pkg->path.$class.".php" ) ) {
					$out = $pkg->path;
					$pkg->close();
					return $out;
				}
			}
		}
	}
	$pkg->close();
	return false;
}

So can you see what I am doing?

If the answer is no, well let me walk you through it quickly.

__autoload( $className ) get`s called by the PHP Engine
__findClass( $className ) get`s called by my implementation of the __autoload function
A base path is defined if none is provided to start my search in.
__findClass obtains a Directory object by calling dir()
__findClass iterates over the entries in the Directory object working on each entry
If the entry is a directory, __findClass calls itself recursively with the current entry as the base search path
If the entry is the file we are looking for, __findClass returns the path to the file
If the __findClass method returns a string, __autoload attempts to “require” the path returned with the naming convention specified by myself

Viola! You now have yourself a dynamic classloader for PHP.

Enjoy!

Posted by: beef | Comments: (146)

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