Model Database class required (PHP/MySQL)

Question

Hi, I'm after a model-based database class for PHP/MySQL. But it must have one particular functionality:

Once the class is initialised ( e.g $user=new User(); ) I should be able to access the attributes in the user table as follows:

$user->name // returns the value of the 'name' field in the user table

I should not have to define the attributes or need to create any functions to return the attribute value, it should be done automatically when the class is initialised.

Is there such a database class out there? If not can someone tell me how I would go about creating this functionality?

Answer 1

I am unsure on a database class, but if you were to write one then look into PHP's Magic Methods, in particular the __get() function

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.overloading.php#language.oop5.overloading.members

class myClass {

    function __get($field) {
        // grab $field from database
    }

    function __set($field, value) {
        // set $field in database
    }
}

$class = new myClass();

echo $class->field1; // grab value field1

$class->field1 = 'myVal'; // set field1 = 'myVal';

Answer 2

You can use stdClass to do just that:

$object = new StdClass;  
$object->foo = 'bar'; 

Or if you want a little bit more control you could use PHP's magic methods.

Answer 3

Check out http://www.phpobjectgenerator.com/. Will same you a lot of time in the long run.

Answer 4

Have you looked at Doctrine? You can generate model classes based on your DB schema. I use it on every project and I love it.