Cannot find dynamic class reference PHP - php

Question

My routing.php (auto-prepend file)
<?php
if (preg_match('/\.(?:png|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/', $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"])) {
return false;
} else {
include 'index.php';
}
My index.php
<?php
namespace MVC;
require_once "controllers/AdminController.php";
use MVC\controllers\AdminController as AdminController;
/*
* Break the requested URI down into an array
*/
$request = trim($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
$request = explode("/", $request);
$request = array_filter($request);
$additional = array();
$singles = array();
/*
* Get the method/controller from the requested URL
*/
foreach($request as $key=>$item) {
switch($key) {
case 1:
$controller = $item;
break;
case 2:
$method = $item;
break;
default:
if($key > 2) {
$item = explode("=", $item);
if(isset($item[1])) {
//key item pair, data
$pairs[$item[0]] = $item[1];
/*
* Make the assumption that any value passed in
* as an assigned value is data and not a route
*
* Append this to the pairs array as its own key/item
*/
} else if(isset($item[0])) {
echo "<b>WARNING: \"" . $item[0] . "\" has no key/value!</b>";
}
}
break;
}
}
/*
* Handle the fact that these might not have been requested
*/
if(!isset($controller))
$controller = 'index';
$controller = ucfirst($controller) . "Controller";
if(!isset($method))
$method = 'index';
$controller = new $controller();
My AdminController.php (found in controllers/AdminController.php)
<?php
namespace MVC\controllers;
require_once "libs/Controller.php";
use MVC\libs\Controller;
class AdminController extends Controller {
}
Finally my Controller superclass found in libs/Controller.php
<?php
namespace MVC\libs;
class Controller {
}
My issue is this line
$controller = new $controller();
I'm aware that this is a variable - that's the intention, I'm trying to dynamically load this class based on the URI request.
Gives this error:
127.0.0.1:50342 [500]: /admin/users/id=555/action=ban - Class 'AdminController' not found in /home/jack/PhpstormProjects/mvc/index.php on line 64
I've checked that it's requiring the class, using it as "AdminController", yet it still can't find a reference to it in the relevant namespace - I'm thinking that because it's dynamic it might have some issues?
Cheers all!
EDIT: My folder structure
controllers
AdminController.php
libs
Controller.php
index.php
routing.php

Answer 1

This is a namespace problem. You can't use variable class name and use statement at the same time like you do. Your variable gets its value at runtime, while use imports are done at compile time (use can't be used in block scope for the same reason). See:
use foo as bar;
class foo {
public function __construct() {
echo "OK\n";
}
}
new foo(); // OK
new bar(); // OK
$foo = 'foo';
$bar = 'bar';
new $foo(); // OK
new $bar(); // Fatal error: Class 'bar' not found
Solution: use full class name (with absolute namespace) in your variable.