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This is not so much a question about execution as it is a question about improving code. I am a 2nd year student, we started to touch on OOP recently and I am finally getting the hold of it....sort of.
I realize this is a very basic question, but what better place to learn from some of the best.
My Question
I have a class which creates a new match. My problem is that I am sure the code is unnecessary long and can get much improved (just keep in mind it is beginner level).Specifically I would like to know:
Can I change the below into 1 setter and 1 getter method?
I would like to use the rand() function for match ID can I do this inside the setter function of setMatchId or should it be done outside of the class?
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.
<?php
class match{
private $matchId;
private $team1;
private $team2;
private $venue;
function __construct($pMatchId, $pTeam1, $pTeam2, $pVenue){
$this->matchId = $pMatchId;
$this->team1 = $pTeam1;
$this->team2 = $pTeam2;
$this->venue = $pVenue;
}
function setMatchId($pMatchId){
$this->matchId = $pMatchId;
}
function getMatchId(){
return $this->matchId;
}
function setTeam1($pTeam1){
$this->team1 = $pTeam1;
}
function getTeam1(){
return $this->team1;
}
function setTeam2($pTeam2){
$this->team2 = $pTeam2;
}
function getTeam2(){
return $this->team2;
}
function setVenue($pVenue){
$this->venue = $pVenue;
}
function getVenue(){
return $this->venue;
}
} // c;lass match
$x = new match("1", "Patriots", "Chargers", "Newlands");
echo $x->getMatchId();
echo'<br />';
echo $x->getTeam1();
echo'<br />';
echo $x->getTeam2();
echo'<br />';
echo $x->getVenue();
?>
How often are teams or venues going to change for a match? I think you should get rid of the setters since you're already providing all the necessary data through your constructor.
You can indeed change your code to work with a single getter and setter methods, but I'd strongly discourage that. IDE's won't be able to assist you with code completion if you implement such methods but, most importantly, you should never blindly implement getters and setters in your entities if they have no reason to exist.
Let the design guide you on that. Start by passing everything your objects need through their constructors and only add getters/setters when you need them, not the other way around.
In terms of the randomness of the ID, you could use UUIDs for them. You could use this library to create them. I'd pass them through its constructor as well.
You can use __set and __get magic methods of PHP.
private $data = array(); // define property array
public function __set($name, $value) // set key and value in data property
{
echo "Setting '$name' to '$value'\n";
$this->data[$name] = $value;
}
public function __get($name) // get propery value
{
if(isset($this->data[$name])) {
return $this->data[$name];
}
}
You can write your existing code as below:-
class Match{
private $data = [];
function __construct($property=[]){
if(!empty($property)){
foreach($property as $key=>$value){
$this->__set($key,$value);
}
}
}
public function __set($name, $value) // set key and value in data property
{
// echo "Setting '$name' to '$value'\n";
$this->data[$name] = $value;
}
public function __get($name) // get propery value
{
if(isset($this->data[$name])) {
return $this->data[$name];
}
}
}
Set properties using construct method
$x = new match(["matchId"=>"1", "team1"=>"Patriots","team2"=>"Chargers","venue"=>"Newlands"]);
echo '<pre>'; print_r($x);
Set properties without construct method
$x = new match;
$x->matchId = '1'; // 1
$x->team1 = 'team1'; // Patriots
$x->team2 = 'Chargers'; // Chargers
$x->venue = 'Newlands'; // Newlands
echo '<pre>'; print_r($x);
output:-
Match Object
(
[data:Match:private] => Array
(
[matchId] => 1
[team1] => Patriots
[team2] => Chargers
[venue] => Newlands
)
)
Now you can access and set propery by below way:-
// Get all properties values
echo $x->matchId; // 1
echo $x->team1; // Patriots
echo $x->team2; // Chargers
echo $x->venue; // Newlands
// Overwrite existing values
$x->team1 = 'new team1';
// Get updated value
echo $x->team1; // new team1
Hope it will help you :)
The first question:
Can I change the below into 1 setter and 1 getter method?
[EDIT] Reply to first comment:
You can, but you shouldn't.. To me it's better keep all setters and getters parted. You might want to get only a specific field when using your match object instance in your code. So if you need to get team1 or team2 it's better to have two different getter methods.
The second question:
I would like to use the rand() function for match ID can I do this inside the setter function of setMatchId or should it be done outside of the class?
Well, in my opinion, the best way of handle it is to disallow any access to the $matchId field making it private and removing any setter method.
Then, you should place the rand generation inside the constructor or, if you want to keep it parted in a specific function you could make a public getter like this:
public getMatchId(){
if ($this->matchId != null)
return $this->matchId
// Generate it with rand()
$this->matchId = rand()
return $this->matchId;
}
In the constructor then simply call the getMatchId() method.
By the way, this solution doesn't help you with getting a unique match identifier, to achieve that you should generate it not purely randomly but using something that is dependant of the informations of the Match (for instance you could use a combination of team1, team2 and venue) and/or keep track of used matchid (a static field or a database could be helpful)
[EDIT] Reply to second comment:
I'm using the if statement in the getter because this getter is thought to generate the $matchId when it's called for the first time, while it'll always return the previously generated $matchId for the other calls.
You question made me think of another possible implementation. If you want to avoid the if then you should generate the $matchId in the constructor.
This way should be fine:
public __construct($team1, $team2, $venue){
$this->matchId = rand();
$this->team1 = $team1;
$this->team2 = $team2;
$this->venue = $venue
}
public getMatchId(){
return $this->matchId;
}
There are multiple answers covering how to do setters and getters in various degrees of complexity and magic. In this post I would rather focus on the design quality of your class Match. This is based on the design idea related to what do you want to use your class for?
Some typical statements answering this question:
Keep record of a given match – In other words it needs to hold information related to one match, i.e. venue, homeTeam, awayTeam, result?, and possibly a matchId related to storing the result somewhere
Set the result of a match – You'll create the match, and then a little later you'll set the actual result of the match.
Store a match – If you don't store it anywhere it is kind of futile to keep track of the match, so most likely you would need some interface either to a database, or some mean to get all information related to a match ready for storing into a file or similar
Ability to retrieve the details of a match – If not getting all information at the same time, you could opt for a getter for the specific values you'll want.
For me I don't see the need for changing the team or venue, as that would mean a new match in my world. And I would definitively not implement a generic setter which would allow for setting whatever to whatever. A generic setter is a security risk in my world.
Alternate implementation
Adhering to the statements given I would write something similar to this:
<?php
class Match {
private $matchId;
private $homeTeam;
private $awayTeam;
private $venue;
private $result;
function __construct($venue, $homeTeam, $awayTeam, $matchId = NULL) {
$this->venue = $venue;
$this->homeTeam = $homeTeam;
$this->awayTeam = $awayTeam;
if (is_null($matchId)) {
$this->matchId = uniqid();
} else {
$this->matchId = $matchId;
}
// In PHP7: $this->matchId = $matchId ?: uniqid();
$this->result = "";
}
function setResult($result){
$this->result = $result;
}
function getAll(){
return array($this->venue, $this->homeTeam, $this->awayTeam,
$this->matchId, $this->result);
}
function __get($name) {
if (property_exist($this, $name)) {
return $this->$name;
}
}
function __set($name, $value) {
if (property_exist($this, $name)) {
$this->$name = $value;
}
}
?>
Some comments related to this code:
homeTeam and awayTeam – Having variables name team1 or team2 is a code smell, to me. I would either create an array for those, or find better names. In this case I opted for better names to make a clear distinction between the two variables.
__construct() – When creating a match the default value for matchId indicates that it will be set to a uniqid(). I consider this a better practice rather then using a random value. And it still allows for setting a specific match id if you want to provide this.
Based on the assumption that you don't know the result when the match is created, the result is set to an empty string for starters.
setResult() – As this is the only part of a match I foresee changing I provided a setter for this value.
getAll() – This returns an array of all the values, ready for storing somewhere. If you like this could easily be changed into a comma separated string or whatever format you would like for post-processing. It could even be a dictionary, but I just used a simple array to keep it simple.
__get() and __set() – Contrary to some of the other answers this getter (and setter) is a little safer to use as it verifies that the actual property is defined in this class using property_exist().
I'm not sure if I would actually have the generic setter, but if you'd like one, this is a better option as it doesn't allow for creation of new properties to your class at runtime.
Usage of class
Here is some simple usage of the class (if my untested code actually works, that is):
<!php
$m = new Match("Newlands", "Patriots", "Chargers");
// Time passes
$m->setResult("102-32");
echo 'In the game ' . $m->homeTeam . ' vs ' . $m->awayTeam
echo ' at ' . $m ->venue ' the result was ' . $m->result . ' <br />'
// Append the match to a file
$fp = fopen('allmatches.csv', 'a');
fputcsv($fp, $m->getAll());
fclose($fp);
?>
This uses fputcsv to format the array into a line in the csv format. Having a method or some way to create a match from an array is left as an exercise. You possibly have a static method taking a file name as a parameter, and return an array of matches.
There is no good or bad model when you aren't trying to solve a well-defined problem just like there's no good answer to a bad question.
Before even worrying about things such as getters and setters you need to determine the purpose of the model and what problem it is trying to solve.
I understand that this is probably just a modeling exercise, but if you want it to have any value, start by defining your problem domain and then work out the solution.
For instance, if you are modeling an application service that allows to query a list of matches, then perhaps Match is a simple immutable data structure that acts as a Data Transfer Object.
If you were modeling a ViewModel that is meant to be 2-way bound to a CRUD screen allowing to update the details of a Match then perhaps you'd have a data container with public getters and setters like you had.
If you were crafting a tournament system domain model and had a use case such as: "Tournament administrators will enter the scoring of a match after it's completion. The outcome will be automatically resolved by the system. The possible results are that the home/away team wins or a draw."
Then perhaps Match would carry a behavior such as (pseudo-code):
scoring = new Scoring(homeTeamScore: 2, awayTeamScore: 3);
match.complete(scoring);
match.outcome(); //-> MatchOutcome.AwayTeamWon
As you can see, the model should be a solution to a well-defined problem. It should model the reality of that problem (not the real world), no more, no less.
I would like to use the rand() function for match ID can I do this
inside the setter function of setMatchId or should it be done outside
of the class?
The generation of an entity's identity is usually not the responsibility of the identity itself in respect to the Single Responsibility Principle. The algorithm that generates the identity may change independently of the Match concept itself.
First of all, there's nothing bad in having several get/set methods, unless you're coding on a 64kb RAM machine (Where you probably would use C, Lua, or such instead of PHP). If they're all doing (almost) the same thing and you think they're messing code up, put them on the very end of your class, so they don't block your vision ;-).
For the practical altering of your code:
If you have several members which differ only by data but actually represent the same kind, like team1, team2 puting them into an array and use a get/setByIndex is legit.
(Take care: I didn't use PHP for hundreds of years or so, there might me syntactical mistakes)
Example:
function setTeamByIndex($pIndex, $pTeam){
$this->teams[$pIndex] = $pTeam;
}
function getTeamByIndex($pIndex){
return $this->team[$pIndex];
}
Alternatively, in other language it's common to return multiple values. This is not possible in PHP, but there's a workaround:
setTeamsFromArray
-- receives an Array with teams and applies the given teams by their key.
getAllTeamsArray
-- returns an Array, containing all teams.
function setTeamsFromArray($pTeams){
foreach ($pTeams as $key=>$team) {
$this->teams[$key] = $team
}
}
function getAllTeamsArray(){
return array( $this->team1, $this->team2 )
}
echo(getAllTeamsArray()[0]) -> echos team1
echo(getAllTeamsArray()[1]) -> echos team2
In my opinion, this is all one reasonable could do in your case.
Shrinking stuff down is not always reasonable and 10 4liners are, most of the time, better than 1 40liner.
for geter and seter you can use __call() magic method for example realize the geters and setters
public function __call($name, $arguments)
{
// TODO: Implement __call() method.
$method = substr($name,0,3);
$key = strtolower(substr($name,3,strlen($name)));
if($method == 'set') {
$this->_data[$key] = $argument[0]
return $this;
} elseif($method=='get') {
if(isset($this->_data[$key])) {
return $this->_data[$key];
} else {
return null;
}
}
}
this is simple realization getter and setter automaticaly generate.
On my site at the beginning of every script I include a "bootstrap" script which queries a few things from the database, does some calculations and then loads the variables into constants that I define one by one.
Some examples are:
define("SITE_ID", $site_id); // $site_id is pulled from a field in the database
define("SITE_NAME", $site_name);
// pulled from a field in the same row as the above
define("STOCK_IDS", $stock_ids);
//computed array of stock id integers from a different query.
//I perform logic on the array after the query before putting it in the definition
define("ANALYTICS_ENABLED", false);
// this is something I define myself and isnt "pulled" from a database
Now, I have many functions on the site. One example function is get_stock_info. And it references the STOCK_IDS constant.
What I want to do is have a class which has the above constants in it and the get_stock_info function.
Would the best approach to be have an empty class "site", create an instance of it and then afterwards define the static variables above one by one? Or is that not a good way and should I move all of of my logic which pulls from the database and calculates SITE_ID, STOCK_IDS, ANALYTICS_ENABLED etc into the constructor instead?
Ultimately I want the class to contain all of the above info and then I would be able to use class methods such as site::get_stock_info() and those methods will have access to the constants via self:: or this.
There's a lot more I want to do than that but that would give me enough to figure the rest out.
I think this approach isn't the best. You should consider not using constants as your values aren't constant. For your case it is better to have a class with classic getters methods.
Something like this:
class SiteInfo
{
private $siteId;
private $siteName;
private $stockIds;
private $analyticsEnabled;
public function __construct()
{
// Results from the database
$results = $query->execute();
$this->siteId = $results['siteId'];
$this->siteName = $results['siteName'];
$this->stockIds = $results['stockIds'];
$this->analyticsEnabled = $results['analyticsEnabled'];
}
public function getSiteId()
{
return $this->siteId;
}
public function getSiteName()
{
return $this->siteName;
}
public function getStockIds()
{
return $this->stockIds;
}
public function isAnalyticsEnabled()
{
return $this->analyticsEnabled;
}
}
So basically I'm making a leap from procedural coding to OOP.
I'm trying to implement the principles of OOP but I have a nagging feeling I'm actually just writing procedural style with Objects.
So say I have a list of pipes/chairs/printers/whatever, they are all all listed as products in my single table database. I need to build a webapp that displays the whole list and items depending on their type, emphasis is on 'correct' use of OOP and its paradigm.
Is there anything wrong about just doing it like:
CLass Show
{
public function showALL(){
$prep = "SELECT * FROM myProducts";
$q = $this->db-> prepare($prep);
$q->execute();
while ($row = $q->fetch())
{
echo "bla bla bla some arranged display".$row['something']
}
}
and then simply
$sth = new show();
$sth->showAll();
I would also implement more specific display methods like:
showSpecificProduct($id)->($id would be passed trough $_GET when user say clicks on one of the links and we would have seperate product.php file that would basically just contain
include('show.class.php');
$sth = new show();
$sth->showSpecificProduct($id);
showSpecificProduct() would be doing both select query and outputing html for display.
So to cut it short, am I going about it allright or I'm just doing procedural coding with classes and objects. Also any ideas/hints etc. on resolving it if I'm doing it wrong?
As well as the model practices described by #Phil and #Drew, I would urge you to separate your business, data and view layers.
I've included a very simple version which will need to be expanded upon in your implementation, but the idea is to keep your Db selects separate from your output and almost "joining" the two together in the controller.
class ProductController
{
public $view;
public function __construct() {
$this->view = new View;
}
public function indexAction() {
$model = new DbProductRepository;
$products = $model->fetchAll();
$this->view->products = $products;
$this->view->render('index', 'product');
}
}
class View
{
protected $_variables = array();
public function __get($name) {
return isset($this->_variables['get']) ? $this->_variables['get'] : null;
}
public function __set($name, $value) {
$this->_variables[$name] = $value;
}
public function render($action, $controller) {
require_once '/path/to/views/' . $controller . '/' . $action . '.php';
}
}
// in /path/to/views/product/index.php
foreach ($this->products as $product) {
echo "Product ID {$product['id']} - {$product['name']} - {$product['cost']}<br />\n";
}
A better fit would be to implement a repository pattern. An example interface might be
interface ProductRepository
{
public function find($id);
public function fetchAll();
}
You would then create a concrete implementation of this interface
class DbProductRepository implements ProductRepsoitory
{
private $db;
public function __construct(PDO $db)
{
$this->db = $db;
}
public function find($id)
{
// prepare execute SQL statement
// Fetch result
// return result
}
public function fetchAll()
{
// etc
}
}
It's generally a bad idea to echo directly from a method or function. Have your methods return the appropriate objects / arrays / whatever and consume those results.
The scenario you are describing above seems like a good candidate for MVC.
In your case, I would create a class strictly for accessing the data (doing selects of product categories or specific products) and then have a different file (your view) take the output and display it.
It could look something like this:
class Product_Model {
public function find($prodId) { ... }
public function fetchAll($category = '') { ... }
public function search($string) { ... }
}
Then somewhere else you can do:
$products = new Product_Model();
$list = $products->fetchAll(37); // get all from category 37
// in true MVC, you would have a view that you would assign the list to
// $view->list = $list;
foreach($ilst as $product) {
echo "Product ID {$product['id']} - {$product['name']} - {$product['cost']}<br />\n";
}
The basic principle of MVC is that you have model classes that are simply objects representing data from some data source (e.g. database). You might have a mapper that maps data from the database to and from your data objects. The controller would then fetch the data from your model classes, and send the information to the view, where the actual presentation is handled. Having view logic (html/javascript) in controllers is not desirable, and interacting directly with your data from the controller is the same.
first, you will want to look into class autoloading. This way you do not have to include each class you use, you just use it and the autoloader will find the right file to include for you.
http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.autoload.php
each class should have a single responsibility. you wouldn't have a single class that connects to the database, and changes some user data. instead you would have a database class that you would pass into the user class, and the user class would use the database class to access the database. each function should also have a single responsibility. you should never have an urge to put an "and" in a function name.
You wouldn't want one object to be aware of the properties of another object. this would cause making changes in one class to force you to make changes in another and it eventually gets difficult to make changes. properties should be for internal use by the object.
before you start writing a class, you should first think about how you would want to be able to use it (see test driven development). How would you want the code to look while using it?
$user = new User($db_object);
$user->load($id);
$user->setName($new_name);
$user->save();
Now that you know how you want to be able to use it, it's much easier to code it the right way.
research agile principles when you get a chance.
One rule of thumb is that class names should usually be nouns, because OOP is about having software objects that correspond to real conceptual objects. Class member functions are usually the verbs, that is, the actions you can do with an object.
In your example, show is a strange class name. A more typical way to do it would be to have a class called something like ProductViewer with a member function called show() or list(). Also, you could use subclasses as a way to get specialized capabilities such as custom views for particular product types.
Hello I am just learning more about using classes in PHP. I know the code below is crap but I need help.
Can someone just let me know if I am going in the right direction.
My goal is to have this class included into a user profile page, when a new profile object is created, I would like for it to retrieve all the profile data from mysql, then I would like to be able to display any item on the page by just using something like this
$profile = New Profile;
echo $profile->user_name;
Here is my code so far, please tell me what is wrong so far or if I am going in the right direction?
Also instead of using echo $profile->user_name; for the 50+ profile mysql fileds, sometimes I need to do stuff with the data, for example the join date and birthdate have other code that must run to convert them, also if a record is empty then I would like to show an alternative value, so with that knowlege, should I be using methods? Like 50+ different methods?
<?PHP
//Profile.class.php file
class Profile
{
//set some profile variables
public $userid;
public $pic_url;
public $location_lat;
public $location_long;
public $user_name;
public $f_name;
public $l_name;
public $country;
public $usa_state;
public $other_state;
public $zip_code;
public $city;
public $gender;
public $birth_date;
public $date_create;
public $date_last_visit;
public $user_role;
public $photo_url;
public $user_status;
public $friend_count;
public $comment_count;
public $forum_post_count;
public $referral_count;
public $referral_count_total;
public $setting_public_profile;
public $setting_online;
public $profile_purpose;
public $profile_height;
public $profile_body_type;
public $profile_ethnicity;
public $profile_occupation;
public $profile_marital_status;
public $profile_sex_orientation;
public $profile_home_town;
public $profile_religion;
public $profile_smoker;
public $profile_drinker;
public $profile_kids;
public $profile_education;
public $profile_income;
public $profile_headline;
public $profile_about_me;
public $profile_like_to_meet;
public $profile_interest;
public $profile_music;
public $profile_television;
public $profile_books;
public $profile_heroes;
public $profile_here_for;
public $profile_counter;
function __construct($session)
{
// coming soon
}
//get profile data
function getProfile_info(){
$sql = "SELECT user_name,f_name,l_name,country,usa_state,other_state,zip_code,city,gender,birth_date,date_created,date_last_visit,
user_role,photo_url,user_status,friend_count,comment_count,forum_post_count,referral_count,referral_count_total,
setting_public_profile,setting_online,profile_purpose,profile_height,profile_body_type,profile_ethnicity,
profile_occupation,profile_marital_status,profile_sex_orientation,profile_home_town,profile_religion,
profile_smoker,profile_drinker,profile_kids,profile_education,profile_income,profile_headline,profile_about_me,
profile_like_to_meet,profile_interest,profile_music,profile_television,profile_books,profile_heroes,profile_here_for,profile_counter
FROM users WHERE user_id=$profileid AND user_role > 0";
$result_profile = Database::executequery($sql);
if ($profile = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_profile)) {
//result is found so set some variables
$this->user_name = $profile['user_name'];
$this->f_name = $profile['f_name'];
$this->l_name = $profile['l_name'];
$this->country = $profile['country'];
$this->usa_state = $profile['usa_state'];
$this->other_state = $profile['other_state'];
$this->zip_code = $profile['zip_code'];
$this->city = $profile['city'];
$this->gender = $profile['gender'];
$this->birth_date = $profile['birth_date'];
$this->date_created = $profile['date_created'];
$this->date_last_visit = $profile['date_last_visit'];
$this->user_role = $profile['user_role'];
$this->photo_url = $profile['photo_url'];
$this->user_status = $profile['user_status'];
$this->friend_count = $profile['friend_count'];
$this->comment_count = $profile['comment_count'];
$this->forum_post_count = $profile['forum_post_count'];
$this->referral_count = $profile['referral_count'];
$this->referral_count_total = $profile['referral_count_total'];
$this->setting_public_profile = $profile['setting_public_profile'];
$this->setting_online = $profile['setting_online'];
$this->profile_purpose = $profile['profile_purpose'];
$this->profile_height = $profile['profile_height'];
$this->profile_body_type = $profile['profile_body_type'];
$this->profile_ethnicity = $profile['profile_ethnicity'];
$this->profile_occupation = $profile['profile_occupation'];
$this->profile_marital_status = $profile['profile_marital_status'];
$this->profile_sex_orientation = $profile['profile_sex_orientation'];
$this->profile_home_town = $profile['profile_home_town'];
$this->profile_religion = $profile['profile_religion'];
$this->profile_smoker = $profile['profile_smoker'];
$this->profile_drinker = $profile['profile_drinker'];
$this->profile_kids = $profile['profile_kids'];
$this->profile_education = $profile['profile_education'];
$this->profile_income = $profile['profile_income'];
$this->profile_headline = $profile['profile_headline'];
$this->profile_about_me = $profile['profile_about_me'];
$this->profile_like_to_meet = $profile['profile_like_to_meet'];
$this->profile_interest = $profile['profile_interest'];
$this->profile_music = $profile['profile_music'];
$this->profile_television = $profile['profile_television'];
$this->profile_books = $profile['profile_books'];
$this->profile_heroes = $profile['profile_heroes'];
$this->profile_here_for = $profile['profile_here_for'];
$this->profile_counter = $profile['profile_counter'];
}
//this part is not done either...........
return $this->pic_url;
}
}
You might want to take a look at PHP's magic methods which allow you to create a small number of methods (typically "get" and "set" methods), which you can then use to return/set a large number of private/protected variables very easily. You could then have eg the following code (abstract but hopefully you'll get the idea):
class Profile
{
private $_profile;
// $_profile is set somewhere else, as per your original code
public function __get($name)
{
if (array_key_exists($name, $this->_profile)) {
return $this->_profile[$name];
}
}
public function __set($name, $value)
{
// you would normally do some sanity checking here too
// to make sure you're not just setting random variables
$this->_profile[$name] = $value;
}
}
As others have suggested as well, maybe looking into something like an ORM or similar (Doctrine, ActiveRecord etc) might be a worthwhile exercise, where all the above is done for you :-)
Edit: I should probably have mentioned how you'd access the properties after you implement the above (for completeness!)
$profile = new Profile;
// setting
$profile->user_name = "JoeBloggs";
// retrieving
echo $profile->user_name;
and these will use the magic methods defined above.
You should look into making some kind of class to abstract this all, so that your "Profile" could extend it, and all that functionality you've written would already be in place.
You might be interested in a readymade solution - these are called object relational mappers.
You should check out PHP ActiveRecord, which should easily allow you to do something like this without writing ORM code yourself.
Other similar libraries include Doctrine and Outlet.
Don't use a whole bunch of public variables. At worst, make it one variable, such as $profile. Then all the fields are $profile['body_type'] or whatever.
This looks like a Data Class to me, which Martin Fowler calls a code smell in his book Refactoring.
Data classes are like children. They are okay as a starting point, but to participate as a grownup object, they need to take some responsibility.
He points out that, as is the case here,
In the early stages these classes may have public fields. If so, you should immediately Encapsulate Field before anyone notices.
If you turn your many fields into one or several several associative arrays, then Fowler's advice is
check to see whether they are properly encapsulated and apply Encapsulate Collection if they aren't. Use Remove Setting Method on any field that should not be changed.
Later on, when you have your Profile class has been endowed with behaviors, and other classes (its clients) use those behaviors, it may make sense to move some of those behaviors (and any associated data) to the client classes using Move Method.
If you can't move a whole method, use Extract Method to create a method that can be moved. After a while, you can start using Hide Method on the getters and setters.
Normally, a class would be created to abstract the things you can do to an object (messages you can send). The way you created it is more like a dictionary: a one-to-one mapping of the PHP syntaxis to the database fields. There's not much added value in that: you insert one extra layer of indirection without having a clear benefit.
Rather, the class would have to contain what's called a 'state', containing e.g. an id field of a certain table, and some methods (some...) to e.g. "addressString()", "marriedTo()", ....
If you worry about performance, you can cache the fields of the table, which is a totally different concern and should be implemented by another class that can be aggregated (a Cache class or whatsoever).
The main OO violation I see in this design is the violation of the "Tell, don't ask" principle.
I'm writing my first application with Zendframework.
My question is about the Model–View–Controller (MVC) architectural pattern.
I currently have a model with refer to a database table.
Here's the classes that I currently have :
Model_Person
Model_PersonMapper
Model_DbTable_Person
Now, I see a lot of examples on the net, but all of them are simple cases of insert/update/delete.
In my situation, I have to check if a person exists, and if it doesn't, I have to insert it and retrieve the ID (I know save return the Id, but it's not exactly what I have to do, this is and example).
It's quit simple, but I want to know where to put the database logic for all the others specific cases. Some others cases might involve checks across other tables or ... whatever !
Should I add all the specific functions in my Model_XXXXMapper with something that would be very specific with the current validation/process that I want to do? like a function getIdOfThePersonByNameOrInsertIfNotExists() (sample name of course!!!)
Or should it reside in the controller with some less specifics access to my model would be validated?
In other word, where do I put all the data specifics functions or check ?
I think the real work should occur in your model objects, not in the controller. Any selects/creates that start with the person table would be in the DbTable_Person object, things like:
// DbTable_Person
// returns sets of or single Person objects
public function createByName( $name ) // perhaps throws exception if name already exists
public function findById( $id )
public function findByName( $name )
public function findHavingAccount( $account_id ) // references another table
// controller
// with your example, like what Galen said,
// I would let the controller handle this logic
$person = $person_table->findByName($name);
if ( !$person ) {
$person = $person_table->createByName($name);
}
if ( !$person ) { throw new Zend_Exception('huh?'); }
$id = $person->id; // you wanted the ID
I would definitely split the function up into search/create functions.
Here's a basic implementation...
$personTG = new Model_PersonTableGateway;
if ( !$person = $personTG->findByName( $name ) ) {
$person = new Model_Person;
$person->name = $name;
// other variables
$newPersonId = $personTG->create( $person ); // creates a new person
}
I use table gateway. You can substitute your class for the TG.
You can have the create() function return just the id of the newly created person, or the entire person...it's up to you.
You might be interested in Zend_Validate_Db_NoRecordExists and its sister. If you are using Zend_Form you can add this validator to your form element. Many folks use Zend_Form to validate and filter data before they reach the domain model.
If you are not using Zend_Form, you can simply use this validation class in your service layer. A simple service class could be something like
`
class Service_Person_Validate
{
public function creatable($data)
{ // return true|false
}
}