Database and OOP Practices in PHP

Question

Its difficult to explain this situation but please see the example.

I have coded a website where the page loads, I initialize a database class. I sent this class as a function parameter to any functions that needs to access database.

I know this is bad approach but currently I have no clue how to do this any other way. Can you please help me.

Example

class sms {

    function log_sms($message, $db) {

     $sql = "INSERT INTO `smslog` SET
      `mesasge` = '$message'
      ";
     $db->query($sql);

     if ($db->result)
      return true;
     return false;
    }

}

then on the main page..

$db = new db(username,pass,localhost,dbname);

$sms = new sms;

$sms->log_sms($message, $db);

Is there any better approach than this ?

Answer 1

For starters you can make a protected $db variable in each of your classes that need to utilize the database. You could then pass $db in to the class constructor. Here's the updated code:

$db = new db(username,pass,localhost,dbname);
$sms = new sms($db);
$sms->log_sms($message);

class sms {

    protected $db;

    public function __construct($db) {
        $this->db = $db;
    }

    public function log_sms($message) {
        $sql = "INSERT INTO `smslog` SET
                `mesasge` = '$message'
                ";
        $this->db->query($sql);

        if ($this->db->result)
                return true;
        return false;
    }
}

This example is in PHP 5.

Answer 2

You could either have a static class that has two lists, one of available connections, the other of handed out connections, and just have a connection pool.

Or, if you are using something that has a quick connection time, such as MySQL, then just create the connection in your database class, do all the queries needed for that functionality, then close it. This is my preferred approach.

Answer 3

there are number of options how to resolve dependencies problem (object A requires object B):

constructor injection

  class Sms { 
        function __construct($db) ....
  }

  $sms = new Sms (new MyDbClass);

setter injection

  class Sms { 
        protected $db;
  }
  $sms = new Sms;
  $sms->db = new MyDbClass;

'registry' pattern

 class Registry {
     static function get_db() {
          return new MyDbClass;
 }}

 class Sms {
      function doSomething() {
          $db = Registry::get_db();
          $db->....
  }}

'service locator' pattern

 class Loader {
     function get_db() {
          return new MyDbClass;
 }}

 class Sms {
      function __construct($loader) {
         $this->loader = $loader;

      function doSomething() {
          $db = $this->loader->get_db();
          $db->....
  }}

  $sms = new Sms(new Loader);

automated container-based dependency injection, see for example http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/11/bucket-is-a-minimal-dependency-injection-container-for-php

   interface DataSource {...}
   class MyDb implements DataSource {...}

    class Sms {
        function __construct(DataSource $ds) ....


    $di = new Dependecy_Container;
    $di->register('DataSource', 'MyDb');
    $sms = $di->get('Sms');

to name a few ;)

also the Fowler's article i gave you before is really worth reading

Answer 4

Singleton is also good practice in application design. They are very useful to avoid repeated queries or calculations during one call. Passing Database object to every method or constructor is not a very good idea, use Singleton instead.

extend your database, or insert static method inside your db class. (I would also call for config within db constructor method)

class database extends db
{
 public static function instance()
 {
  static $object;

  if(!isset($object))
  {
   global $config;

   $object = new db($config['username'],$config['pass'],$config['localhost'],['dbname']);
  }

  return $object;
 }
}

make your method static

class sms {

    public static function log($message) {

        $sql = "INSERT INTO `smslog` SET `mesasge` = '$message'";

        database::instance()->query($sql);

  return (bool) database::instance()->result;
    }
}

Next time you need to log sms just do static call like this

sms::log($message);