Tanax’s Blog

How to organize your classes
Part 1: Database class + config files

In this tutorial you will learn about interfaces, static classes and methods, and how to nicely organize your database class and the configuration for it.

Section 1: Intro

Hello and welcome to this guide! This will be a guide with 2 or possibly 3 parts.
It will learn you how to organize your class files in a nice way, and how to write a good database class that gets your job done.

So, first we’ll take a look at the structure and organizing of the files.

For this to be easier to explain(and for you to understand), I will just pretend that we have a projectfolder called “test”, located in our root directory.

And since I do this on localhost, the folder I place my hosted files, is called “www”. So what does this conclude?
We have:


www
- test


Everyone with me so far?

Right, so let’s start the actual tutorial
We want to have an includes folder, where we will have everything that we want to include.


www
- test
- - includes


In the includes folder, we will have our config file for example(that’s atleast what I will explain to you today) and a classes file which I also will go through today.
Some folders that you want to have inside includes, is for example gfx, js, templates, classes, plugins


www
- test
- - includes
- - - gfx
- - - js
- - - templates
- - - classes
- - - plugins


The folder we will concentrate on today, is the classes folder.

Section 2: The database class and the database interface

Right. Alot of people use database to store things. Not only is it faster than if you would store it with.. say a .txt file, but it’s also alot safer, but the main
thing is that it’s EASY to manipulate the data. This means that you could write neat admin panels to control your site layout, templates and lots and lots more!!

But in order to get a nice way of handling the database, you need a proper database class, that will provide a set of functions for you to use inside your classes.

This database class, will actually consist of 3 files.
iDB.php - This is our interface for the class.
DBmysql.php - This is the actual class for the database, in this case a mysql-database which I called mysql.php(convinient xD?) with the prefix of DB(DBmysql).
DB.php - This is our.. DB factory, which makes it easier to include the database file.

So let’s start by taking a look at our interface!

An interface is merely a blueprint on how the class should look, what functions it have to contain. This is neccessary, because when you guys figure out
that you don’t want to use a mysql database, but an oracle database, and you write your own db class(DBoracle.php), you will then see if your class follows the blueprint.

The interface is define with

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	interface iDB {
 
	}

Pretty simple.
So what functions should the database have?
Well, first of all, we need a function that will set the values of the hostname, username, userpass and dbname. We would also need a function that connects.. etc etc.
I’m sure you can figure out by yourself all the functions that a database class should have.

This is my interface anyhow:

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/**
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|||| @author Tanax
|||| @copyright 2008
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
**/
 
	interface iDB {
 
		public function setHandler($host, $user, $pass, $data);
		public function connect();
		public function select();
		public function disconnect();
		public function query($query);
		public function fetch($sql);
		public function setTable($field, $value);
		public function setCol($field, $value);
 
	}

2 very important functions are the setTable and setCol. I will explain later in the tutorial what they do, just keep them there!

So the next file, is ofcourse the database class itself.
As I mentioned before, this is just the mysql since it’s most used.

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	class DBmysql implements iDB {
 
		private $host;
		private $user;
		private $pass;
		private $data;
		public $table = array();
		public $col = array();
 
 
		public function setHandler($host, $user, $pass, $data) {
 
 
		}
 
		public function connect() {
 
 
		}
 
		public function select() {
 
 
		}
 
		public function disconnect() {
 
 
		}
 
		public function query($query) {
 
 
		}
 
		public function fetch($sql) {
 
 
		}
 
		public function secure($string) {
 
 
		}
 
		public function setTable($field, $value) {
 
 
		}
 
		public function setCol($field, $value) {
 
 
		}
 
 
	}

As you see, we IMPLEMENT the interface. So if you guys decide to create another dbtype class, you have to implement the interface.
And ofcourse, we have to have all the functions that we defined in the interface.

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		public function setHandler($host, $user, $pass, $data) {
 
			$this->host = $host;
			$this->user = $user;
			$this->pass = $pass;
			$this->data = $data;
 
			return $this;
 
		}

I think this is pretty self-explenatory.
The end:

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return $this;

..makes it possible to CHAIN the functions later when we call them and that just looks so awesome.

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		public function connect() {
 
			@mysql_connect($this->host, $this->user, $this->pass) or die("Could not connect to the database.<br /> " .mysql_error());
 
			return $this;
 
		}

I think this is pretty straight forward aswell. We return $this here aswell.

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		public function select() {
 
			@mysql_select_db($this->data) or die("Could not select database.");
 
			return $this;
 
		}

I’m not gonna say anything..

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		public function disconnect() {
 
			@mysql_close() or die("Could not close database connection. Perhaps because the connection isn't opened.");
 
		}

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		public function query($query) {
 
			$result = mysql_query($query);
 
			return $result;
 
		}

Here’s some new stuff, but still really basic. If you’re even reading this guide, about classes and interfaces, you should definitely know how to make a mysql query!!

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		public function fetch($sql) {
 
			$array = mysql_fetch_array($sql, MYSQL_ASSOC);
 
			return $array;
 
		}

… Fetches an array

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		public function secure($string) {
 
			$secure = mysql_real_escape_string($string);
 
			return $secure;
 
		}

Secures a string from possible mysql injections.

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		public function setTable($field, $value) {
 
			$this->table[$field] = $value;
 
		}
 
		public function setCol($field, $value) {
 
			$this->col[$field] = $value;
 
		}

These are our 2 magic functions
The explenation comes later..

The whole class:

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/**
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|||| @author Tanax
|||| @copyright 2008
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
**/
 
	class DBmysql implements iDB {
 
		private $host;
		private $user;
		private $pass;
		private $data;
		public $table = array();
		public $col = array();
 
 
		public function setHandler($host, $user, $pass, $data) {
 
			$this->host = $host;
			$this->user = $user;
			$this->pass = $pass;
			$this->data = $data;
 
			return $this;
 
		}
 
		public function connect() {
 
			@mysql_connect($this->host, $this->user, $this->pass) or die("Could not connect to the database.<br /> " .mysql_error());
 
			return $this;
 
		}
 
		public function select() {
 
			@mysql_select_db($this->data) or die("Could not select database.");
 
			return $this;
 
		}
 
		public function disconnect() {
 
			@mysql_close() or die("Could not close database connection. Perhaps because the connect isn't opened.");
 
		}
 
		public function query($query) {
 
			$result = mysql_query($query);
 
			return $result;
 
		}
 
		public function fetch($sql) {
 
			$array = mysql_fetch_array($sql);
 
			return $array;
 
		}
 
		public function secure($string) {
 
			$escapedstring = mysql_real_escape_string($string);
			$secure = stripslashes($escapedstring);
 
			return $secure;
 
		}
 
		public function setTable($field, $value) {
 
			$this->table[$field] = $value;
 
		}
 
		public function setCol($field, $value) {
 
			$this->col[$field] = $value;
 
		}
 
 
	}

Did you notice btw, that the table variable, and the col variable are public eventhough I said in my other guide that you should never have public variables??
This makes it really sweet for you when you write your plugins later So trust me on this one

Section 3: The database factory

So onto the DB factory!
This is the.. ultimate thing. It makes it so easy to include the classes it’s unbelievable..

We name the file DB.php and the first thing we have in it is an autoload function..

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	function __autoload($classname) {
 
		include_once($classname . '.php');
 
	}

This makes it so that whenever you call ..

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$object = new DBmysql();

.. it autoincludes DBmysql file so you can create the object. You don’t have to include the file in the beginning or anything! Magic!

Secondly, we will have the factory class:

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	class DB {
 
    	public static $DB;
 
    	public static function getInstance($type) {
 
			if(!is_object(self::$DB)) {
 
            	$type = strtolower($type);
            	$type = 'DB'.$type;
 
	            self::$DB = new $type();
 
        	}
 
       		return self::$DB;
 
		}
 
	}

So what on earth is this?
Static??!?!

Yah! It’s something awesome, and sweet, and.. completely madness
Static means that you can use it, without instance the DB class.

Instead of writing:

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$db = new DB();
echo $db->DB;

You can just do this:

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echo DB::$DB;

Not that you would want to echo the DB object(it’s a variable, but contains an object if you called the getInstance function) but still you get the point.

So what does this getInstance do?
Well, first we check if the variable $DB is an object already, and if it’s not, we do the things inside the bracket.
Also note, that when dealing with static variables or functions, we have to use self:: instead of $this.

Actually, I think this function is pretty easy to understand.
What happens is that you include DB.php
Then:

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$database = DB::getInstance('mysql');

.. and it tries to include DBmysql.php, create an instance of it, and return the object.
Now don’t tell me that this ain’t neat?

NOTE: iDB.php, DB.php and DBmysql.php should be placed in the classes folder!

Section 4: The config and classes files

So the configuration file will ofcourse contain alot more when you have your plugins written, but right now we’ll just include the basic stuff.
This is my configuration file:

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/**
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|||| @author Tanax
|||| @copyright 2008
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
**/
 
	$tanaxia['config']['database']['host'] = 'localhost';	// Database host
	$tanaxia['config']['database']['user'] = 'root';		// Database user
	$tanaxia['config']['database']['pass'] = '';			// Database pass
	$tanaxia['config']['database']['data'] = 'slutuppgift'; // Database name
	$tanaxia['config']['database']['type'] = 'mysql';		// Database type
 
	session_start();
	include('classes.php');

Yeh, erh.. I got kinda long variables+arrays there, but that’s just so I could easially see what it is.
It’s the $tanaxia variable(in this case for me it means that it’s belonging to the core), and it’s the [’config’] array, which means for me that it’s
a setting for the core. The next array [’database’], means that it’s a database setting, and then the next is defining what setting.

I then start the session, and include classes.php

Onto the classes file; this is what makes or breaks the script. Here we start all the classes, AND we use the setCol and setTable functions of the database class.
This is the classes file:

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/**
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|||| @author Tanax
|||| @copyright 2008
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
**/
 
	include('classes/DB.php');
 
	$tanaxia['database'] = DB::getInstance($tanaxia['config']['database']['type']);	
	$tanaxia['database']->setHandler(
 
						$tanaxia['config']['database']['host'],
						$tanaxia['config']['database']['user'],
						$tanaxia['config']['database']['pass'],
						$tanaxia['config']['database']['data']
 
						)
						->connect()
						->select();
 
 
 
	//$tanaxia['database']->setTable('news', 'news');
	//$tanaxia['database']->setCol('news_id', 'news_id');
	//$tanaxia['database']->setCol('news_publish', 'news_publish');

So, we include our DB factory.
Then we create the database, based on the type settings in our config file.

After that we set the handler with all the data provided from the config file, and then directly we chain the next function(remember the chain I talked about?) and connect to
the host, and then select the database.

That’s really everything we’ve done now.

The things that are commented describes how to use the setTable.

The good things with that, is that later when you use the db object in the plugins(for example news plugin), you want to insert values into different columns in the database.
An example would be this:

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	class news {
 
		private $db;
		private $newsid;
 
		public function __construct($db) {
 
			$this->db = $db;
 
		}
 
		public function getNewsbyID($id) {
 
			if(!is_numeric($id)) {
 
				return false;
 
			}
 
			else {
 
				$sql = sprintf("	SELECT
										*
									FROM
										`%s`
									WHERE
										`%s` = '%s'
									AND
										`%s` != 0
									LIMIT 1",
 
									$this->db->table['news'],
									$this->db->col['news_id'],
									$id,
									$this->db->col['news_publish']);
 
				$query = $this->db->query($sql);
 
				if(!$query) {
 
					return false;
 
				}
 
				else {
 
					unset($this->newsid);
					$this->newsid = $this->db->fetch($query);
					return $this->newsid;
 
				}
 
			}
 
		}
 
 
	}

As you see, we call the table news. But what if you decide to rename the table in your database and you’ve hardprinted `news` into the query?
Then you need to enter your class and change EVERYTHING to match the new name. And that kinda stinks.

So let’s say you change the news table name to “articles”.

Then you just enter your classes.php file, and change this line:

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$tanaxia['database']->setTable('news', 'news');

to this:

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$tanaxia['database']->setTable('news', 'articles');

Now, even if we in the class call the table “news”, it will assosciate with “articles”, so it’s really easy and manageable.

NOTE: Both config.php and classes.php goes into your includes folder!

So the structure we have, looks like this right now:


www
- test
- - includes
- - - config.php
- - - classes.php
- - - classes
- - - - DB.php
- - - - iDB.php
- - - - DBmysql.php


This is everything right now! Part 2 will be about plugins