Question

I have a PHP class with a few static properties like so:

static public $_TYPE_DESIGN_DRAFT = 'design_draft';
static public $_TYPE_STORYTELLING_DRAFT = 'storytelling_draft';
static public $_TYPE_OTHER = 'other';
static public $_TYPE_DATA_FILE = 'data_file';

static public $_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = array(       // on the next line it breaks
                self::$_TYPE_DESIGN_DRAFT => array("jpeg", "jpg", "png", "gif", "pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv"),
                self::$_TYPE_STORYTELLING_DRAFT => array("jpeg", "jpg", "png", "gif", "pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv"),
                self::$_TYPE_OTHER => array("jpeg", "jpg", "png", "gif", "pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv"),
                self::$_TYPE_DATA_FILE => array("pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv", "xls")
);

But it seems PHP won’t let me define an array like that with the value of the keys as static properties of the same class.

A workaround would be to only define the $_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS var in the constructor of the class, but then I can’t make it static because when static, the constructor doesn’t get called.

Is there an effective workaround for this?

Answer 1

You cannot use class properties like this.

Following on from my comment; can you not doing something like this?

class Test
{
    static public $_TYPE_DESIGN_DRAFT = 'design_draft';
    static public $_TYPE_STORYTELLING_DRAFT = 'storytelling_draft';
    static public $_TYPE_OTHER = 'other';
    static public $_TYPE_DATA_FILE = 'data_file';

    static public $_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = array();

    public static function init()
    {
        self::$_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = array(
            self::$_TYPE_DESIGN_DRAFT => array("jpeg", "jpg", "png", "gif", "pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv"),
            self::$_TYPE_STORYTELLING_DRAFT => array("jpeg", "jpg", "png", "gif", "pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv"),
            self::$_TYPE_OTHER => array("jpeg", "jpg", "png", "gif", "pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv"),
            self::$_TYPE_DATA_FILE => array("pdf", "txt", "rtf", "doc", "csv", "xls")       
        );      
    }
}

Test::init();
print_r(Test::$_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS);