Question

I am using PDO to make the connection to the DB.
I was wondering how should i structure it using the MVC pattern.

Currently i have it like this:

/model/DatabaseConfig.php

/model/DB.php

/model/Model.php

/model/MySQLDB.php

/model/User.php

View/index.php

What do you think about it?
Is it ok? Should i place DB, Model and MySQLDB in another subfolder?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You should have a look at DAO design pattern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_access_object. It allows for the separation of Models and Database interface, which will be very useful if at some point you want to switch the database.

You might also want to read more about it in this article http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/php-patterns-part-ii/

It’s a matter of preference, but I would structure them in the following manner

Model/User.php 
DAO/MySQLDB/User.php 
DAO/MySQLDB.php (old DB.php)
Config/DatabaseConfig.php 
View/Index.php 
MySQLDB.php

Model would contain all the Model classes with Business Logic in them
DAO would contain all the generic database SQL scripts and connections
Config would contain all the configuration scripts
View all the views
Not sure what the DB.php does, so not sure where to place it.

Steve was asking in the comment about the difference between Model/User.php and DAO/MySQLDB/User.php, hope this example will illustrate it well

class Model_User
{
    public function hashPassword($password)
    {
        $salt = SALT_STRING;
        return hash("sha512", $password.$salt);
    }

    public function getById($id)
    {
    $id      = (int) $id;
    $db_data = new MySQLDB_User();
    $db_data->getById($id);
    return $this;
    }
}

and

class MySQLDB_User
{
    public function getById($id)
    {
        $sql = "SELECT * FROM `users` "
        ." WHERE `id` = \"" . $this->_db_connection>real_escape_string($id)
        . "\" LIMIT 1";
        $result = $this->query($sql);
        $this->_parseRow($result);
        return $this;
    }
}

Have a look at how the biggest frameworks structure their folders i.e. Zend Framework example is here http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/project-structure.project.html

They usually thought long about the set up, and most of the developers are familiar with it, so if you have a new hire, they will be able to find their way around the custom built system quicker than they would otherwise.