trying to use a trait but keeps saying not found - php

Question

I have a api trait that connects to an external endpoint. I want to use this trait in a class called ProductClass. The trait is in the same folder as the class, but I get a error is I add use ApiTrait in the class. Error says it cannot find the trait, So if I include the trait file at the top of the class file, I get this error, cannot find ApiTrait in
ProductClass\ApiTrait.
If i pass the trait into the constructor I get an error from my index page when I call the ProductClass because I am not passing in the trait. I dont want to pass any params to the constructor just the string top append to the .env endpoint. any clues greatly appreciated
heres my ApiTrait code
<?php
namespace ApiTrait;
require './vendor/autoload.php';
use GuzzleHttp\Client;
trait ApiTrait
{
protected $url;
protected $client;
public function __construct()
{
$this->url = getenv('API_URL');
$this->client = new Client();
}
private function getResponse(String $uri = null)
{
$full_path = $this->url;
$full_path .=$uri;
try {
$response = $this->client->get($full_path);
}
catch (GuzzleHttp\Exception\ClientException $e) {
$response = $e->getResponse();
}
return json_decode($response->getBody()->getContents(), true);
}
public function getAPIData($uri)
{
return $this->getResponse($uri);
}
}
this is my ProductClass code
<?php
namespace ProductClass;
include_once("ApiTrait.php");
use DataInterface\DataInterface;
class Product implements DataInterface
{
use ApiTrait\ApiTrait
private $api;
public function __construct(ApiTrait\ApiTrait $apiTrait) {
$this->api = $apiTrait;
}
private function getResponse($append, $try) {
$urlAppend = $append;
$good_data = false;
do{
try{
$result = $this->api->getAPIData($urlAppend);
//check data to see if valid
if(!array_key_exists( "error",$result)){
$good_data = true;
return $result;
}
}
catch(Exception $e){
//call api upto 10 times
if($try < 10) {
sleep(1);
getData($append, $try++);
} else { //return a connection error
$api_error['error']='unable to connect to api';
return $api_error;
}
}
} while($good_data === false);
}
public function getData($append, $try = 0)
{
return $this->getResponse($append, $try);
}
}

Answer 1

If you're using an autloader, you shouldn't ever need this:
include_once("ApiTrait.php");
You've got your trait defined in the ApiTrait namespace:
namespace ApiTrait;
trait ApiTrait { ... }
I.e., the trait's full path is \ApiTrait\ApiTrait. If you're using the trait in a namespace other than the one it's defined, then you need to anchor from the root namespace when referring to it, by preceding it with a backslash:
namespace ProductClass;
class Product implements DataInterface
{
use \ApiTrait\ApiTrait;
Otherwise, if you do use ApiTrait\ApiTrait; without the leading backslash, then PHP thinks you're referring to the current namespace, which is ProductClass, yielding \ProductClass\ApiTrait\ApiTrait -- which doesn't exist, hence your error.
You could also do it this way with class aliases:
namespace ProductClass;
use ApiTrait\ApiTrait;
class Product implements DataInterface
{
use ApiTrait;
Also, it looks like you're just putting every class it its own namespace. Don't do that. Use namespaces to group common items, for example, something like this:
namespace Traits;
trait Api { ... }
namespace Traits;
trait Foo { ... }
namespace Traits;
trait Bar { ... }
namespace App;
class Product {
use \Traits\Api;
use \Traits\Foo;
use \Traits\Bar;
}