Hello there Talkphp'ers!
I'm currently in the process of making my own "design" or "framework", mostly to expand my knowledge with patterns. But also to try and solve some problems which comes on the way, it's turning out to be a great learning experience! Been able to solve most myself.
To learn, you need to expirement, see if stuff can be done in different ways. And that's what I just did. I made some of my functions in a class static, and accessed them statically. Made some of the variables static (those which I thought would be logical to declare static), but not all the methods are static. And they are not accessed from outside this class, only from within in the example coming below!
I'd love if anyone could explain to me if static methods ONLY are useable for situations where you'd only access a method from another class (or outside it in other ways), because then you wont have to load the entire class. (It's logical that gives better performance) So, when I should declare a class variable or method static, when is it better performance wise - or other wise? (I know how it functions with scopes)
Here's the code I made which made me think above, it works perfect. So it's mostly just a question for further coding and to improve this specific scripts, if you have other improvements except for the static stuff - shoot! I'm here to become better. :)
PHP Code:
<?php
/*
*
* Template class to handle the connection between methods and
* the actual template view files.
*
*/
final class Template {
// Path to view file
private static $template;
// Variables to be pushed to the template
private $data;
// Wields the instance of the registry
private static $registry;
// Name of controller [Class]
private static $controller;
// Name of action [Method]
private static $action;
/*
*
* The template must be created with two parameters, name
* of the controller and name of the action [Method]
*
* @param string $controller Name of the controller
* @param string $action Name of the action [Method]
*
*/
public function __construct($controller, $action) {
// Get registry instance
self::$registry = Registry::getinstance();
// Make these available everywhere
self::$controller = $controller;
self::$action = $action;
// Sets the variable $template to be the path to the
// most relevant view file
self::viewFile();
}
/*
*
* Stores a variable in the template
*
* @param string $variable The name of the variable
* @param string $data The content of the varible
*
*/
public function __set($variable, $data) {
$this->data[$variable] = $data;
}
/*
*
* When the object is converted to a string, it prints out
* our content.
*
* @return mixed $this->process() The template file
*
*/
public function __toString() {
if (self::$registry->config['dev_debug']) {
echo '<br/>Variables pushed to <b>Template</b><br/>';
echo '<pre>';
print_r($this->data);
echo '</pre>';
echo 'Now requiring <b>template files..</b><br/>';
}
/*
*
* Makes our configuration array and our data array into
* variables which then are easily accessible from the
* view file.
*
*/
extract($this->data);
/*
*
* Requires the correct top file using the getPart
* function, as well as the correct template and
* at last the bottom part.
*
*/
include(self::getPart('top'));
require(self::$template);
include(self::getPart('bottom'));
// Bye!
if (self::$registry->config['dev_debug']) {
echo 'Destroyed <b>Template</b><br/>';
}
}
/*
*
* Checks for custom header or bottom parts, and returns the most
* relevant path for the part.
*
*/
private static function getPart($part) {
$view_path = APPPATH . 'views/' . self::$controller . '/';
// If a custom header/bottom for this specific file is found, load it
if (file_exists($view_path . $part . '.' . self::$action . '.php')) {
return $view_path . $part . '.' . self::$action . '.php';
// elseIf a custom header/bottom for this specific controller is found, load it
} elseif (file_exists($view_path . $part . '.php')) {
return $view_path . $part . '.php';
// Else, load default
} else {
return APPPATH . 'views/' . $part . '.php';
}
}
/*
*
* Fetches the view file which should be used and sets it into
* the class wide variable $template;
*
*/
private static function viewFile() {
$method_view = APPPATH . 'views/' . self::$controller . '/' . self::$action . '.php';
$index = APPPATH. 'views/' . self::$controller . '/' . 'index.php';
// If there's a view file for the specific method, use it
if (file_exists($method_view)) {
self::$template = $method_view;
// Else use the view file for the index method
} elseif (file_exists($index)) {
// Check if the method exists
if (method_exists(self::$controller, self::$action)) {
self::$template = $index;
} else {
require(PBLPATH . 'misc/errors/404.php');
exit;
}
} else {
throw new Exception('Template file for class ' . self::$controller . ' not created.');
}
if (self::$registry->config['dev_debug']) {
echo 'Instanced <b>Template</b><br/>';
}
}
}
Hope to get some responses I can learn from! :)