Laravel multiple object instantiation - php

Question

I'm fairly new to Laravel and was wondering what the most efficient way of instantiating and making available multiple objects to my classes was.
An example of what I am doing currently would be, in kind of sudo code:
// MainController.php
<?php
Class MainController extends BaseController {
public function __construct() {
parent::construct();
}
// class code follows
}
// BaseContoller.php
<?php
use classFile;
Use repositoryFile;
use classFile2;
Use repositoryFile2;
..... and lets say 10 more "included" files
Class BaseController extends Controller {
var classFile;
var repositoryFile;
var classFile2;
var repositoryFile2;
..... and 10 more variables;
public function __construct() {
$this->classFile = new classFile;
$this->classFile = new classFile;
$this->repositoryFile = new repositoryFile;
$this->classFile2 = new classFile2;
$this->repositoryFile2 = new repositoryFile2;
..... and 10 more class instantiations
}
// class code follows
}
Hopefully that makes sense.....
Almost all of my classes that inherit BaseController will at some point make use of these objects so loading them all in for each class is I guess the right thing. My main two questions though are:
How expensive, from a pure code point of view, is instantiating multiple objects like this before they are needed. I have included them in the BaseController file because I found myself repeating these included definitions in the numerous files that inherit from BaseController.
From a Laravel point of view is there a better framework way of doing this kind of thing? Originally I had them being injected in through each classes constructor but again they were being repeated (the same definition in multiple files) and were becoming horribly large.
I've followed a lot of the Laracasts tuts as well as various reading material but I've not yet seen how people handle a large volume of objects like I'm trying to use. Or perhaps thats where I'm going "wrong"?
Cheers !
== Heres an example of the call for the homepage of the API I'm working on. It aggregates content from all across the site into a feed for a mobile app:
public function index()
{
$channels = $this->channelRepository->getChannels();
$allChannels = $this->channelRepository->getAllChannels();
$sponsors = $this->sponsorRepository->getSponsors();
$inactiveUserChannels = [];
// use the pattern maker, set the pattern we want to use
$this->patternMaker->setPattern(1);
$channelFeed = [];
if( userIsAuthenticated() )
{
$inactiveUserChannels = $this->userRepository->getUserInactiveChannels( 1 );
}
// Picks
$picks = $this->articleRepository->getArticles( 'picks', 25 );
$ads = $this->sponsorRepository->getWhereNotInCollection( $sponsors, 30 );
$response = $this->patternMaker->make( [ 'articles' => $picks, 'sponsors' => $ads ] );
$picks = $response->articles;
$ads = $response->sponsors;
// Whats on
$channel = 50;
$whatsOn = $this->articleRepository->getArticlesWithEvents(null); // get 20 articles from the whats on channel
$response = $this->patternMaker->make( [ 'articles' => $whatsOn, 'sponsors' => $ads ], "whats-on" );
$whatsOn = $response->articles;
$ads = $response->sponsors;
$channel = $this->channelTransformer->transform( getChannel($channels, $channel) );
$channel['articles'] = $whatsOn;
$channelFeed[] = $channel;
// create a new instance of the channel feed class and pass the required params to it
$this->channelFeed = $this->createChannelFeed( $allChannels, [ 48, 49, 51, 52 ], $ads, $inactiveUserChannels );
if( ! $response = cached("homepage") )
{
$data = [
'channels' => $this->channelTransformer->transformCollection( $channels )
,'adverts' => $this->sponsorTransformer->transformCollection( $sponsors->toArray() )
,'features' => $this->articleTransformer->transformCollection( $this->articleRepository->getArticles( 'featured', 25 ), [ 'showBody' => false] )
,'picks' => $picks
,'channelFeed' => $this->channelFeed->make()
];
cacheIt("homepage", $response, "1 hour");
}
return $this->respondFound(Lang::get('api.homepageFound'), $data);
}
This is early stage and I am refactoring as I go which is where this question of class dependencies has come from.

Answer 1

First, unless your constructor on the MainController have more logic you can just leave out the constructor all together and the BaseController constructor will be called directly.
You could do this:
Class BaseController extends Controller {
protected $classFile;
//repeat for all classes
function classFile() {
if(!$this->classFile) $this->clasFile = new classFile;
return $this->classFile;
}
//repeat for all classes
function useExample() {
$this->classFile()->randomMethod();
}
}
... this way atleast you dont instanciate more than needed.
That beeing said, it sounds like what you really want is Facades, and you could just go:
$channels = ChannelRepository::getChannels();
http://laravel.com/docs/facades