PHP - Class not found fatal error - php

Question

I am creating a custom MVC framework in PHP based on the tutorial by Anant Garg:
CustomMVC
-app
--controllers
---Controller.php
---HomeController.php
--models
---Home.php
--views
-config
--app.php
-lib
--bootstrap.php
--shared.php
--database.class.php
-public
--.htaccess
--index.php
-tmp
-.htaccess
My HomeController cannot extend the Controller and I get the following:
Fatal error: Class 'app\controllers\Controller' not found in
/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/CustomMVC/app/controllers/homecontroller.php
on line 7
Both of them are under the same namespace and they are located under the same directory. I don't know why HomeController cannot extend the base Controller. Any advice on that?
namespace app\controllers;
Controller.php
namespace app\controllers;
use lib\Template;
class Controller {
protected $_model;
protected $_controller;
protected $_action;
protected $_template;
public function __construct($model, $controller, $action) {
$this->_controller = $controller;
$this->_action = $action;
$this->_model = $model;
$this->_model =& new $model;
$this->_template =& new Template($controller,$action);
}
function set($name,$value) {
$this->_template->set($name,$value);
}
function __destruct() {
$this->_template->render();
}
}
HomeController.php
<?php
namespace app\controllers;
use app\controllers;
class HomeController extends Controller {
function getHome($id = null,$name = null) {
}
function getAbout() {
}
function postContact() {
}
}
This is the autoload function in the lib**shared.php**
function __autoload($className) {
if ( file_exists(ROOT . DS . 'lib' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.php') )
{
require_once(ROOT . DS . 'lib' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.php');
}
else if ( file_exists(ROOT . DS . 'lib' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.class.php'))
{
require_once(ROOT . DS . 'lib' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.class.php');
}
else if ( file_exists(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'controllers' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.php'))
{
require_once(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'controllers' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.php');
}
else if( file_exists(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'controllers' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.class.php'))
{
require_once(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'controllers' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.class.php');
}
else if (file_exists(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'models' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.php'))
{
require_once(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'models' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.php');
}
else if (file_exists(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'models' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.class.php'))
{
require_once(ROOT . DS . 'app' . DS . 'models' . DS . strtolower($className) . '.class.php');
}
else
{
/* Error Generation Code Here */
}
}