PHP If Statement in Class to set protected variable - php

Question

I'm trying to set a class Variable dependent on an if statement in PHP that's available to all the functions in the class. Just setting the variable works fine, but as soon as I attempt to set from an IF statement everything is breaking.
Examples:
Works
class Default_Service_NewSugar {
protected $base_url = "http://url1";
function test() {
return $this->base_url;
}
}
Doesn't work
class Default_Service_NewSugar {
if($_SERVER['APPLICATION_ENV']=="development"){
protected $base_url = "http://url1";
} else {
protected $base_url = "https://url2";
}
function test() {
return $this->base_url;
}
}
Is this not possible in a class? If not is there an alternative way I should be approaching this?

Answer 1

The main problem is that you are putting procedural code inside a class. Referencing to the PHP.net documentation:
A class may contain its own constants, variables (called "properties"), and functions (called "methods").
php.net
I would recommend reading the PHP manual on how to work with OOP, and read many of the OOP tutorials available on the web.
As mentioned in other answers you should do the initializing work inside the class constructor.
class Default_Service_NewSugar
{
protected $base_url;
public function __construct()
{
$this->base_url = ($_SERVER['APPLICATION_ENV'] == "development")
? "http://url1"
: "https://url2";
}
function test()
{
return $this->base_url;
}
}
A more OOP like approach would be to set the URL inside a configuration file and pass the variable to the class when initiating the class.
class Default_Service_NewSugar
{
protected $base_url;
public function __construct($base_url)
{
$this->base_url = $base_url;
}
function test()
{
return $this->base_url;
}
}
//usage would then be:
$default_service = new Default_Service_NewSugar($url_from_configuration_file);
$default_service->test(); //outputs the given URL

Answer 2

You should write that conditional statement inside the constructor. And also, no need to specify the access specifier every time the variable is being initialized, you can specify once and in the initialization part just assign the value. And also optimize your code as well.
class Default_Service_NewSugar {
protected $base_url = "http://url";
function __construct() {
$this->base_url .= $_SERVER['APPLICATION_ENV']=="development" ? 1 : 2;
}
function test() {
return $this->base_url;
}
}

Answer 3

You have lots of typos and that's not the perfect way to work around variables within class
class Default_Service_NewSugar {
protected $base_url;
public function __construct() {
$this->base_url = ($_SERVER['APPLICATION_ENV'] == "development") ? "http://url1" : "http://url2";
}
public function test() {
return $this->base_url;
}
}

Answer 4

As already mentioned, you may initiate your variable inside constructor. Another approach to achieve your goal is to use property access function instead of direct object field access. In this way, you may add additional conditions easily and the code will look like this:
class Default_Service_NewSugar {
public function __construct() {
}
public function getBaseURL($env = null) {
$env = $env ? $_SERVER['APPLICATION_ENV'] : $env;
return ($env == "development") ? "http://url1" : "http://url2";
}
}
$obj = new Default_Service_NewSugar();
print $obj->getBaseURL();