Question

Current situation:

• I have the current version of my MVC Framework which uses classes as controllers.
• I have some ‘vintage’ modules from my old MVC Framework which uses simple, flat includes as controllers.

Much simplified that means:

New Version:

<?PHP class blaController extends baseController {     private $intVar;      function dosomethingFunction() {         $this->intVar = 123;         $this->view('myView');     } } ?> 

Old Version:

<?PHP $globalVar = 123; // view 'controllername' is automatically shown ?> 

I’m now trying to write a wrapper to be able to use my old controllers in my new MVC without having to rewrite everything. To do so, I have a ‘wrapper’ controller:

class wrapController extends baseController {     function dosomethingFunction() {         require 'old_dosomething.function.php';         $this->view('old_dosomething_view');     } } 

(Once again: This is VERY, VERY simplified – just to get the idea over. Not actual code.)

The problem with that approach is, that the previously global variable $globalVar now only exists inside of the method ‘dosomethingFunction’ and cannot be accessed by the view.

This wouldn’t be the case if I could force the require to behave as ‘in global scope’ so that $globalVar would once again be available in global scope.

So: Is there some way to achieve ‘require_global‘ or something similar?

(One solution for my problem would be to modify my old controllers to start with a bunch of ‘global’ commands, but I’d prefer a solution where I don’t have to change so much of that old code.)

(Note: Please don’t tell me that GLOBALS are bad. It totally misses the point of this question. Just accept that it is a requirement to keep some old code working in a newer, cleaner environment.)

Answer 1

You can add local variables defined within dosomethingFunction() to global scope:

class wrapController extends baseController {     function dosomethingFunction() {         require 'old_dosomething.function.php';         //begin added code           $vararr = get_defined_vars();         foreach($vararr as $varName => $varValue)                $GLOBALS[$varName] = $varValue;                     //end added code                   $this->view('old_dosomething_view');     } } 

Note, that for this to work as expected, you should call require before using any other thing in the function. get_defined_vars() returns only variables from the current scope, so no array_diff hacks are needed.