Question

I am new around here and I have a quick question if anyone can help me. To keep it short I am working on a website and I have my files separated by directories and I include the files depending on the name of the page I am on. For example I have a main page dashboard.php that looks something like :

include $file1;
include $file2;
include $file3 etc.

Now I trying to use a class page that include all the files needed automatically when I construct the object.
My problem is when I include the files with the help of the class I can’t seem to find the instance of the object in my included files.
For example : $page=new Page("Test") includes $file1,$file2 etc…. Now when I am trying to use object $page in $file1 it doesn’t fiind it.
If anyone has a solution for this problem or if you think that is a wrong way to design web pages please let me know.

It’s not a problem of includes, the includes are working, I am using autoload and all that the problem is seeing objects methods in classes included through that class. Let me be more explicit :

main.php :

    $page=new Page("Test");

Page.class.php :
__construct($title)
{
include($file1);
include($file2);
}
$file1:
echo "test"; // working
$file2:
echo $page->getTitle() // doesn't work, don't worry about the method it exists and works

Answer 1

Per the manual, the include() function inherits the variable scope of the line it’s included on.

I’m assuming you’re currently doing something like:

class Page {
public __construct() {
    include($file1);
    include($file2);
}
}

If you need the file(s) to be accessible outside of the class you want them to be included in, you should add the includes outside of the class, such as:

include($file1);
include($file2);
class Page { ...

In the event you need the included files to have access to the class-instance itself (per your latest update), you would use the $this pseudo-variable. The reason you can’t use $page inside the included files is because $page hasn’t been defined; the scope of that variable is inside your main.php file and any other files it includes (but no “inside” classes).

You can update your include ($file2) to use $this with echo $this->getTitle() instead of echo $page->getTitle() and it should work fine.

Alternatively, if you would like to use the $page variable instead of $this, you can define it such as $page = $this; right before you include a file that uses it like this:

public __construct() {
    $page = $this;
    include($file2); // file2 will now have access to a variable named $page
}