I'm pretty new to the MVC concept itself but I'm slowly starting to grasp it, and what it is that makes it so useful.
I have in my app different tabs which are levels in a hierarchy (I call them entities), each represented by two classes - a Binding class with all the methods to communicate with the database and a helper class which is just a skeleton of the Entity, both in same file. I wonder if this is the right way to approach the design pattern? I haven't built a Model or a Controller yet because I'm not sure where they'll come in at the moment. Also I'm not interested to use ORM right now.
class CompanyBinding extends EntityBinding {
function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
}
public function get($criteria = array()) {
// method to retrieve an array of DB rows, each represented by the helper class
[...]
return $sth->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_CLASS, 'Company');
}
public function get_by_id($id) {
// method to retrieve an one single object of the helper class
$sth->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_CLASS, 'Company');
return $sth->fetch();
}
}
class Company extends Entity {
public $id;
public $name;
public $email;
public $phone;
// just properties. some classes have a __construct() function to manipulate some fields after retrieval
[...]
}
Do I need a model class now? I was considering the Controller could perform the ->get function and load appropriate class, because the name of the entity is passed from the front-end with AJAX.
By the way I also am really confused. Should the controller absorb all AJAX requests or should I make a file called ajax.php that handles that, and put the Controller class above public_html so users can't access the class file?
Separate the classes into their own files. PHP does a decent job at caching file locations once it opens them, so you don't have to worry about IO. And generally speaking, it is bad practice to put multiple classes in one file. It won't break your application, but it may cause more seasoned developers to break-down into tears. :)
Apart from that, you are fine.
Related
I am wondering if such this subclassing structure is possible in PHP. If this is a duplicate I apologize as I couldn't figure out what this process would be called and the only I could find was a closed question with no answer.
I am working with multiple classes. For example we will say Main and User.
The Main class will hold all of the initiation code. So
class Main{
//Setters for core variables and data needed to make calls
...
protected function fetchInfo(){
//Do Stuff to return info from other source(Curl calls in my case)
}
}
and User
class User extends Main{
public function getName(){
$data = $this->fetchInfo();
return $data['name'];
}
}
But instead of having it where I would. Do $exampe1 = new Main(...); to set varaibles, and $example2 = new User(); to call the subclass to do $example2->getName(); is there a way to do something like $example = new Main(); whcih could then call the subclasses when needed like $example->User->getName();?
I know there are a lot of different ways this could be handled, but I want the classes separate for organization and I plan on having a lot of subclasses that need to pull info from that main class and would like to know if there is a way they can be linked in that fashion.
EDIT: The reason I dont want to just call User calls to get the function is I'll end up having 15+ classes that handle the returned data differently and making wonder if there was a better way than making a new Object for each one if I want to use it.
A "Main" is not a "User" so I would say this type of subclassing is a poor choice.
I might instead look at injection.
class MainDataHandler {
//...
}
class User {
private $main;
public function __construct(MainDataHandler $main) {
$this->main = $main;
}
public function getName() {
return $this->main->getData('name');
}
}
The benefits of injection is that your classes can work and be tested independently without dependencies on another class to do the work. Also if "Main" ever changes you your User class isn't dependent on how the new Main works.
Please help me. I need a better understanding PHP OOP principles.
If I have a class property which is immutable for all of the class instances it should be defined as static?
If so, is there a way to be sure that static properties are defined in all classes of that type? As I read in PHP manual, static properties cannot be controller neither by the interface nor by abstract classes? Or am I wrong?
Simple example.
<?php
// Parent class
abstract class Employee
{
abstract public function getAlias();
}
// Child classes
class Manager extends Employee
{
public function getAlias()
{
return 'manager';
}
}
class Security extends Employee
{
public function getAlias()
{
return 'security';
}
}
Tell me, where an alias property should be placed?
I have to be sure that any Employee descendants that will be created in future will have that property defined. Is it OK to keep that kind of properties in dynamic methods? Or they should be placed in constants, static methods or static properties?
Actually the current version is quite ok (if considered with no context) because it makes for a cleaner code, since it closer matches principle of least astonishment. Technically, you could rewrite it as this (but that would actually make it worse code):
abstract class Employee {
public function getAlias() {
return $this->alias;
}
}
class Manager extends Employee {
protected $alias = 'mngr';
}
$user = new Manager;
echo $user->getAlias();
Live code: https://3v4l.org/sjVOT
The more important aspect is the purpose of this code. You mentioned, that you would want to use something like this for dealing with single-table inheritance, but here is the important part:
Your domain entities should not be aware of how your persistence layer works.
And pulling structural information from the domain layer for use in some query-builder is a terrible idea. I would recommend for you to instead looks at data mapper pattern (you probably should actually read the PoEAA book).
Your domain entities should not know any details about how (or even "if") they is being saved or restored.
Over the past two years, I have become fairly familiar with PHP MVC style architecture, and have developed all my projects using MVC structures since then.
One question that has continued to bother me is how to group functions and database calls. I run into needing to perform the same actions across models. I would prefer not to duplicate these operations and sql query inside each of the models, but would rather group all user operations into a separate class.
For example, say I have a website with a forum, a blog, and a profile page, each with a separate model, view, and controller. However, say each of these pages needs to perform the same operation to the user table.
My Model class is constructed with a database object automatically. If I need to call a function from the user class, is it ok to pass the db object to that new User class? ... to do something like the following? I am not sure if passing objects like I am doing is fine, or is there a much better way of setting things up? Am I wasting resources, or is this a clumsy way of doing things?
Profile Model
class Profile_Model extends Model{
public function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
}
public function someFunction(){
$this->db->insert( "SOME SQL" );
$user = new User( $this->db ); // OK TO PASS DB OBJECT LIKE THIS?
$user->setSomething();
}
public function anotherFunction(){
//do something else that does not need a user object
}
}
User Class
class User{
public function __construct($db){
$this->db = $db; // OK TO SET DB OBJECT AS CLASS VARIABLE AGAIN?
}
public function setSomething(){
$this->db->insert( "SOME SQL" );
}
}
I'm trying to give you a really basic example of how I'd implement this architecture; Since it's really basic and I'm just a passionate developer and nothing more it could be I'm breaking some architectural rules, so please take it as a proof of concept.
LET'S START quickly with the Controller part where you get some request. Now you need someone that takes care of doing the dirty work.
As you can see here I'm trying to pass all the "dependencies" via constructor. These way you should be able to easily replace it with Mocks when testing .
Dependency injection is one of the concepts here.
AND NOW the Model (please remember Model is a layer and not a single class)
I've used "Services (or cases)" that should help you to compose a group of behaviors with all the actors (Classes) involved in this behavior.
Idendifying common behaviours that Services (or Cases) should do, is one of the concepts here.
Keep in mind that you should have a big picture in mind (or somewhere else depending on the project) before starting, in order to respect principle like KISS, SOLID, DRY, etc..
And please pay attention to method naming, often a bad or long name (like mine for example) is a sign that the class has more than a single Responsability or there's smell of bad design.
//App/Controllers/BlogController.php
namespace App\Controllers;
use App\Services\AuthServiceInterface;
use App\Services\BlogService;
use App\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Response;
class BlogController
{
protected $blogService;
public function __construct(AuthServiceInterface $authService, BlogService $blogService, Request $request)
{
$this->authService = $authService;
$this->blogService = $blogService;
$this->request = $request;
}
public function indexAction()
{
$data = array();
if ($this->authService->isAuthenticatedUser($this->request->getSomethingRelatedToTheUser())) {
$someData = $this->blogService->getSomeData();
$someOtherData = $this->request->iDontKnowWhatToDo();
$data = compact('someData', 'someOtherData');
}
return new Response($this->template, array('data' => $data), $status);
}
}
Now we need to create this Service that we've used in the controller. As you can see we're not talking directly with the "storage or data layer" but instead we're calling an abstraction layer that will handle that for us.
Using a Repository Pattern to retrieve data from a data layer, is one of the concepts here.
this way we can switch to whatever repository (inMemory, other storage, etc) to retrieve our data without changing the interface that the Controller is using, same method call but get data from another place.
Design by interfaces and not by concrete classes is one of the concepts here.
//App/Services/BlogService.php
<?php
namespace App\Services;
use App\Model\Repositories\BlogRepository;
class BlogService
{
protected $blogRepository;
public function __construct(BlogRepositoryInterface $blogRepository)
{
$this->blogRepository = $blogRepository;
}
public function getSomeData()
{
// do something complex with your data, here's just simple ex
return $this->blogRepository->findOne();
}
}
At this point we define the Repository that contains the persistance handler and knows about our Entity.
Again decoupling storage Persister and knowledge of an entity (what "can" be coupled with a mysql table for example), is one of the concepts here.
//App/Model/Repositories/BlogRepository.php
<?php
namespace App\Models\Respositories;
use App\Models\Entities\BlogEntity;
use App\Models\Persistance\DbStorageInterface;
class DbBlogRepository extends EntityRepository implements BlogRepositoryInterface
{
protected $entity;
public function __construct(DbStorageInterface $dbStorage)
{
$this->dbStorage = $dbStorage;
$this->entity = new BlogEntity;
}
public function findOne()
{
$data = $this->dbStorage->select('*')->from($this->getEntityName());
// This should be part of a mapping logic outside of here
$this->entity->setPropA($data['some']);
return $this->entity;
}
public function getEntityName()
{
return str_replace('Entity', '', get_class($this->entity));
}
}
At the end a simple entity with Setters and Getters:
//App/Model/Entities/BlogEntity.php
<?php
namespace App\Models\Entities;
class BlogEntity
{
protected $propA;
public function setPropA($dataA)
{
$this->propA = $dataA;
}
public function getPropA()
{
return $this->propA;
}
}
AND NOW? how can you inject this classes passed as dependencies? Well, this is a long answer.
Indicatively you could use Dependency Injection as we've done here have a init/boot file where you define things like:
// Laravel Style
App::bind('BlogRepositoryInterface', 'App\Model\Repositories\DbBlogRepository');
App::bind('DbStorageInterface', 'App\Model\Persistence\PDOStorage');
or some config/service.yml file like:
// Not the same but close to Symfony Style
BlogService:
class: "Namespace\\ConcreteBlogServiceClass"
Or you may feel the need of a Container Class from where you can ask the service you need to use in your controller.
function indexAction ()
{
$blogService = $this->container->getService('BlogService');
....
Dulcis in fundo here are some useful links (You can find tons of docs about this):
Services in Domain-Driven Design
Wicked Domain Model
Dependency Injection Container
Inversion of Control and Dependency Injection
Managing common Dependencies with parent Services
Whenever you need to use an object from another class there is only one safe way to do it: Dependency Injection.
Example:
Instead of having:
public function myMethod(){
$anotherObject = new Object();
}
You should inject the object with the constructor:
function __construct($dependency) {
$this->anotherObject = $dependency;
}
Once you have this structure you can use type hint and an Inversion of Control container to build thing automatically, e.g. define:
function __construct(DependencyInterface $dependency) {
$this->anotherObject = $dependency;
}
And then set your IoC container to inject the right dependency when you need to use this object
Do you use any frameworks? If not, try having a look at some popular ones, like Zend Framework or Symfony. You'll find they solve your problem and probably many more and are a great way to expand your knowledge on how to structure your project.
That aside you are close. Although adding the database directly to your User-model is probably not want you want to do. If you can get Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (PEAA) you will find a whole chapter outlining how to connect your models to your database. I prefer a Gateway-class (search for the Gateway-pattern or look at Zend_Db) when building something on my own, as it is relatively easy to implement and build.
Basically you have a class which performs queries and then will pass the data to your model. Just look at Data Source Architectural Patterns in Martin Fowler's pattern catalog (http://martinfowler.com/eaaCatalog/) to get a quick glance how to structure it and definitely read the book to get a real understanding when and how to use the patterns.
I hope this helps.
Part of the answer is to use dependency injection, but there is more to it than that. Cognitively speaking, grouping starts in the mind and is teased out better by brainstorming and modeling: Entity Relationship Diagrams and UML Diagrams.
Grouping of methods into classes and delegating tasks to injected objects makes sense, but there is usually room for one level of inheritance (at minimum). The use of abstract super classes and a Strategy Pattern for child classes that inherit base functionality from the abstract parent can help reduce code duplication (DRY).
All that being said, this is one reason why dependency injection containers are popular. They allow you to obtain the objects, and hence functionality, you need anywhere, without coupling object instantiation to usage.
Do a search for Pimple in Google. It may give you some ideas.
I'm writing a fairly simple "fact database" in PHP (with Codeigniter .. but I am trying to get away from the framework internals for learning purposes), and trying to better my MVC/OOP practices.
Previously I would have done this: a fact model, a user model, a source model .. and inside each of those models I would place the CRUD logic for each. So it would look like this..
$this->fact_model->save($fact);
$this->user_model->deactivate($uid);
$this->source_model->get_id($sid);
But after reading more, it seems to make sense to have a separate persistence model (ie 'database_model'). But then it seems it would have to contain a full range of CRUD for each type of object, which seems wasteful to me. I guess I'm looking for how to go to this...
$this->db_m->save(Fact $fact);
$this->db_m->update(User $user);
// .. etc .. but also ..
$this->db_m->get_user_id($uid);
// .. and ..
$htis->db_m->get_all_facts();
Is this heading in the right direction? Do I just end up testing for type inside the database model and switching when I need to? Or do I extend the database model for each type of object?
$this->fact_db_m->save(Fact $fact);
$this->fact_db_m->get_all();
$this->source_db_m->get_id($sid);
Or something like this, which I guess is the closest to CIs AR implementation.
$this->db_m->save('facts', Fact $fact);
$this->db_m->get('user', array('id'=>$uid));
I guess this is a case of "active record vs repository". I understand that repository is easier to test, and the CRUD logic is separate from the object data, and that separation makes sense to me. But still.. it means you have to write a separate repository model for each entity. Is this right?
BTW - I know Codeigniter has a Database class and uses active record, and in a way I am just kind of re-creating it with some of those approaches. I'm just trying to understand things without relying on the framework internals. Any comments? Is it just a matter of choice?
Trying to do a little research on my own, thanks to your question, I came across this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd569757.aspx , which explains the differences between different data access patterns.
I hope i understood the question correctly, but here goes.
My approach would be to use the separation of models, however the one twist i usually do. i will try to be clear.
Lets say my application is going to require 3 unique features. One for users, facts, sources, All of these models might need to use some common functions like SAVE or LOAD, or UPDATE, or DELETE. Instead of duplicating the common functions into each model, i would simply make a base class with all the common functions, a nd have the base class extend the CI_Model, then all my new model files ( users,facts,sources ) i would have extend my common class.
To better illustrate this, i will throw some basic code up
db_common_model Common Class (db_common_model.php)
class db_common_model extends CI_Model
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
/**
* All Common Functions Here */
public function save()
{
// Do stuff
}
public function update()
{
// Do stuff
}
public function etc()
{
// Do stuff
}
}
users_model Class (db_common_model.php)
class users_model extends db_common_model
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
/**
* user specific functions */
public function get_one()
{
// Do stuff
}
public function get_all()
{
// Do stuff
}
public function get_latest()
{
// Do stuff
}
public function etc()
{
// Do stuff
}
}
/**
* When using it in CI Controller
*/
$this->user_model->get_one(); // loads user specific function
$this->user_model->save(); // Calls all inherited methods from parent db_common_model
// Etc
This way of setting up your models allows you expand common features in the db_common_model, that are automatically available to all children classes.
This allows for clean organization, and allows you to not have to re-invent your common functions in every model.
Hope this helps.
Lets say I have a class called PageBuilder which I instantiate, send parameters to and call functions from through my index file (which acts as a front controller). There are three sub classes associated with the PageBuilder class: Head, Body and Foot, that are accessed by PageBuilder which basically abstracts them for index.
So in theory you could instantiate PageBuilder and have full access to the other classes as if they were part of PageBuilder.
How can I implement a design like this in PHP5 using any combination of classes, abstract classes and interfaces?
I don't think the above is possible with PHP5, not necessarily because PHP has its limitations but maybe because I am going about the design of my application the wrong way.
Common examples of OOP in PHP don't suffice to help me understand how to structure a more complex design.
Thanks.
Some of the other answers are on the right track. The problem you're running into is that your PageBuilder class is doing too much. Just the name sounds wrong for what you're trying to do with it. A PageBuilder sounds like something that would assemble a bunch of parts together into a Page. Let's call these parts Section. Then, what you want to do is use composition, as several of the answers have hinted at.
Inheritance is often described as an is-a relationship, as in if your Section classes extend the PageBuilder class, then a Section is a PageBuilder. What you want though is a has-a relation ship, as in your PageBuilder class has a (or many) Section(s). Any time you need a has-a relationship, you should be looking toward composition rather than inheritance.
So here might be your class hierarchy:
abstract class PageBuilder
{
//#var Section
public $header;
//#var Section
public $body;
//#var Section
public $footer;
public function render()
{
echo $this->header.$this->body.$this->footer;
}
}
class Section
{
protected $content;
}
class LoginPage
extends PageBuilder
{
public function __construct()
{
$this->header=new Section(...);
$this->footer=new Section(...);
$this->body=new Section(...);
}
}
At this point, you're really kind of re-inventing the wheel by making a crappy MVC system. If this is for a project (rather than for learning), you should consider using one of the MVC frameworks for PHP. (I recommend Kohana, but there are several questions regarding the best PHP versions on Stack Overflow.) If you're thinking of these kinds of things, MVC probably won't be a great leap for you.
From what I understand here you could use the composite pattern
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_pattern
Your controller index has only access to an object that implements an interface IPageBuilder (or a name similar), with some standards function like "generatePage". This object would in reality be some kind of container that contain other object of type IPageBuilder. Those leafs object would be able to build some subsection of the page, like Head, Body and Foot. Each of those leaf object would be of a different class, but they will implement the IPageBuilder interface. When your index object call "generatePage", the container will call in order the "generatePage" method of each of its leaf objects, that will in turn take care of rendering the HTML.
Using this approach, if your Body class become too big, you can always turn it into a container that implements the IPageBuilder interface, for example a blog post Body could consist of an Article object and a CommentList object. The body object would then only propagate the "generatePage" method to its children object.
To create your IPageBuilder object, you can use a factory patterns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_method_pattern
In all honesty, I have tried those kind of approach in the past to generate my HTML and found them to be kind of overkill. My suggestion would be to use a templating engine instead, like Smarty. Your designer will love you (or hate you less) if do that ^^.
http://www.smarty.net/
If you want to know how to use interfaces in PHP, not that it's very hard...
http://ca.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.interfaces.php
So if I understand correctly you want Head, Body, and Foot to automatically construct as children of PageBuilder?
There are a couple of ways you could maybe do this.
1) Create variables inside of PageBuilder to hold the classes and use a __call method
class PageBuilder{
private _head;
private _body;
private _foot;
function __construct(){
$this->_head = new Head();
$this->_foot = new Foot();
$this->_body = new Body();
}
function __call($name, $args){
if(method_exists($this->_head, $name)) call_user_func_array(array($this->head, $name), $args);
// Repeat for other classes.
}
}
The problem here obviously being if two classes share the same method then the first one to come up wins. You could probably modify it to pick a class based on the function name pretty easily.
2) Chain everything down.
Abstract class Page{
}
class Head extends Page{
}
class Body extends Head{
}
class Foot extends Body{
}
class PageBuilder extends Foot{
}
Either way its somewhat hacked, you just kind of have to make it work.
PHP only allows you to extend one parent class (which can in turn extend another parent class, etc.). There are no interfaces, meaning you can't inherit functions or properties from multiple interfaces as you could in C++.
As such, you will probably need to do something more like this:
class PageBuilder {
protected Head, Body, Foot;
public function __construct($request) {
$view = $this->getView($request);
$this->Head = new PageSection('head.tpl');
$this->Body = new PageSection($view);
$this->Foot = new PageSection('foot.tpl');
}
private function getView($request) {
// #todo return the template filename/path based upon the request URL
}
}
class PageSection {
private $template;
public function __construct($template) {
$this->template = $template;
}
public function render() {
// #todo process and output the $this->template file
}
}