Process/Flow of PHP autoloader when using namespaces - php

Question

I'm in the middle of adapting to namespaces and using spl_autoload_register(), but still struggling with understanding some aspects. For example, I have this current example working but I don't understand why there is an extra call made. Let me explain...
I have a "services" directory that houses service based classes:
services
div-services-debug.php
div-services-helper.php
div-services-etc.php
In my class I register my autoload function like so:
spl_autoload_register( array( $this, 'services' ) );
private function services( $class ) {
# If not a service don't bother
if (strpos($class, 'DIV\\services') === false) return;
$class = str_replace('\\', '-', strtolower($class));
if( is_file($this->path['services_dir'].$class.'.php') )
require $this->path['services_dir'].$class.'.php';
}
Example service looks something like this:
namespace DIV\services{
if ( ! class_exists( 'debug' ) ) :
class debug{
public static function scripts() {
...
}
}
endif;
}
I then implement a service like so:
DIV\services\debug::scripts();
Easy enough, but when running through some debugging on the autoloader method I'm noticing that with that call to the service I get 2 passes ($class = current class being passed through autoloader):
$class = DIV\services\helper
This I expected considering the call. But then I see another iteration
$class = helper
Why is this one call executing 2 attempts to autoload?
Both DIV\services\helper and helper are being called from the one implementation call. Is this how namespaces function? Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

#Xtremefaith, currently I am using this way
function __autoload($class){
spl_autoload_extensions('.php');
$normalized = __DIR__ .
DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR .
str_replace('\\', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $class) .
spl_autoload_extensions();//normalize
if (!file_exists($normalized)) {
throw new Exception('Autoload Exception: File can not be loaded.');
} else {
require_once $normalized; //include file
}
}
spl_autoload_extensions('.php');
spl_autoload_register('__autoload');
And to call:
new \DIV\ClassName();
I hope this can help you in some way.