Question

I am working on replacing some old objects with updated ones in php. The site currently has an __autoload function that simply calls a .inc file in the include directory. I have created a new autoload function for the updated objects using spl_autoload_register. It uses a directory named lib and namespaces.

I have an object named Sample, and the old object, also named Sample, references a definition in include/sample.inc. Then new object path is lib/Sample.php. My problem is, even though I am using the spl_autoload_register on the page that is calling the object, it is still calling the old object. Here is my code (please note that the __autoload() is defined prior to reaching this page).

<?php
spl_autoload_register('autoload_lib');
$sample_id = req('sample_id');
$alert = req('alert');

if (!empty($sample_id))
{
    $sample = new Sample($sample_id);
    var_dump($sample); die();
    $referral = $sample->Referral();

    matry::open (get_defined_vars());
}
else
        {
            matry::open(get_defined_vars());
        }

Answer 1

When you start using spl_… methods, they usurp any existing __autoload function:

If your code has an existing __autoload() function then this function
must be explicitly registered on the __autoload stack. This is because
spl_autoload_register() will effectively replace the engine cache for
the __autoload() function by either spl_autoload() or
spl_autoload_call().

One can see this in a simple example:

<?php

ini_set('display_errors', 1);

function __autoload($className) {
    exit("__autoload");
}

spl_autoload_register(function($className) {
    exit("spl_autoload");
});

// try to create nonexistent class
new Foo();

?>

The above example outputs “spl_autoload”

Are you sure no other autoloader has been registered at that stage in the script? You could test this by adding the prepend argument (e.g., spl_autoload_register(‘autoload_lib’, true, true); Is autoload_lib callable at that time in the script (has it’s source been included?)