Setting Properties via Methods - php

Question

I am new to OOP.
I am currently working on adding data to an object to then submit it to a database. I have created a method called setData to take two arguments, and then add those arguments into the object.
Inside my class, I use this
public function setData($value1, $value2) {
$this->$value1 = $value2;
}
Where on a form submit, that function is used to store data
$sites = new AddWebsites;
$sites->setData('name', $name);
$sites->setData('page_rank', $pr);
$sites->setData('pa', $pa);
$sites->setData('da', $da);
$sites->setData('tf', $tf);
$sites->setData('cf', $cf);
$sites->setData('keywords', $keywords);
$sites->setData('notes', $notes);
This will output the following data
AddWebsites Object
(
[name] => asdf.com
[page_rank] => 5
[pa] => 15
[da] => 25
[tf] => 14
[cf] => 62
[keywords] => Array
(
[0] => kw1
[1] => kw2
[2] => kw3
[3] => kw4
[4] => kw5
)
[notes] => asdf
)
I have been told that this is wrong, and will throw errors.
I was wondering if there is a better way to achieve this, if it is actually wrong, and if there is an easier way to do this.
With error reporting enabled, I have not run across anything that tells me what I am doing is wrong.
Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

It's wrong in pure OOP terms because you're using PHP's (somewhat unusual) ability to add arbitrary attributes to instantiated objects via your setData method.
What you should be doing - to achieve the goals of encapsulation and data validation - is something like this :
class AddWebsites {
private $name;
private $pageRank;
// etc
// Setters
public function setName(value) {
// you can put validation logic in here
this->name = value;
}
public function setPageRank(value) {
// you can put validation logic in here
this->pageRank = value;
}
// etc
// getters
public function getName() {
return this->name;
}
public function getPageRank() {
return this->pageRank;
}
}
This is using "Getters" and "Setters".
You could however have your members as public then you wouldn't need the getters

Answer 2

One of things i can notice is passing field name in function parameter is not an good idea. Reason behind that is if you by mistake pass wrong field name then php will create one more field for that object.
So if you are having multiple objects of same class some will have that field some will not. This leads to inconsistency.
So I feel this is not correct thing to do as you are not suppose to create properties of class pbject dynamically.
Ideal way is to have different getter and setter functions for each field and fields should be private in scope, so that you/developer will not not able to create new fields by mistake.