PHP include path and path separator confusion - php

Question

I'm trying to get an opensource web application running. Its from here - https://sourceforge.net/projects/labshare-sahara/
It uses the Zend PHP framework.
My problem is with the following bit of code. It fails to find a file, and so it returns false, and the message:
"2012-08-20T00:01:08+02:00 DEBUG (7): Unable to find auth class
SAHARANS_Auth_Type_Database in include path"
is outputted to the log file.
private function _loadClass($name)
{
/* Find the class to load. */
$file = implode('/', explode('_', $name)) . '.php';
foreach (explode(PATH_SEPARATOR, get_include_path()) as $path)
{
$this->_logger->debug("does $path/$file exist?"); //I added this
if (file_exists($path . PATH_SEPARATOR . $file))
{
return new $name();
}
}
$this->_logger->debug("Unable to find auth class $name in include path.");
return false;
}
To give a bit more context I got it to print some more information to the log - so it writes to the log each time round the for loop. This is the output:
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\application/../library/SAHARANS/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\library/SAHARANS/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\application\models/SAHARANS/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\institution/SAHARANS/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does ./SAHARANS/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\php\PEAR/SAHARANS/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): Unable to find auth class SAHARANS_Auth_Type_Database in include path
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\application/../library/Sahara/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\library/Sahara/Auth/Type/Database.php exist
2012-08-20T00:47:07+02:00 DEBUG (7): does C:\xampp\htdocs\Sahara-WI\WI\application\models/Sahara/Auth/Type/Database.php exist?
Note: Database.php does exist in the models\Sahara\Auth\Type directory!
What immediately seemed strange is the interchange between '/' and '\' in the
paths, but trying to force a backlash (I'm using a windows machine) didn't seem to have any affect.
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

PATH_SEPARATOR is ; on windows, and : on other operating system. It is used to split multiple paths, not (sub)directories and file names.
Change:
if (file_exists($path . PATH_SEPARATOR . $file));
To:
if (file_exists($path . '/' . $file));
This will work everywhere.

Answer 2

Well 2 things:
Use DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR and not PATH_SEPARATOR.
Use realpath() to fix any path oddities.
If anyone's interested, my autoloader looks like this (not ZF though):
<?php
namespace Application\Common;
/**
* Autoloader class
* This class will be responsible for autoloading of classes.
*/
class Autoloader {
/** #var string $namespace Namespace prefix for this instance */
private $namespace;
/** #var string $path Path prefix for this instance */
private $path;
/**
* #param string $namespace
* #param string $path
*/
public function __construct($namespace, $path) {
$this->namespace = ltrim($namespace, "\\");
$this->path = rtrim($path, "/\\");
}
/**
* Attempts to load a class.
*
* #param string $class The class name, including namespace.
*
* #return bool Success or fail based on class existence.
*/
public function load($class) {
$class = ltrim($class, "\\");
//Check to see if class is from correct namespace defined by Autoloader instance.
if (strpos($class, $this->namespace) === 0) {
//Explode by namespace parts
$namespace_parts = explode("\\", $class);
//Class would be the last element, take it out and return it
$class = array_pop($namespace_parts);
$namespace_parts[] = '';
/* Build the directory path:
The base path as defined in Autoloader
The namespace parts, each a folder
Parts of the class, separated by an underscore, become folders as well
*/
$path = $this->path . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . implode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $namespace_parts);
$path .= str_replace("_", DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $class) . ".php";
$path = realpath($path);
if (file_exists($path)) {
require $path;
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
/**
* Register the function.
*/
public function register() {
spl_autoload_register(array($this, "load"));
}
/**
* Unregisters the function.
*/
public function unregister() {
spl_autoload_unregister(array($this), "load");
}
}
Use:
//Application being the common namespace prefix.
//__DIR__."Application" being the base directory.
$autoloader = new Application\Common\Autoloader("Application", __DIR__ . "Application");
$autoloader->register();

Answer 3

Your autoloader needs to actually require in the class, so you probably want:
if (file_exists($path . PATH_SEPARATOR . $file))
{
require $path . PATH_SEPARATOR . $file;
return new $name();
}