Question

I think this is a reasonably easy question however I just don’t get autoloading in Zend framework.

Basically, I have the standard Zend project layout with application/models, application/controllers, application/views directories. I have also added an application/forms directory, and the classes that it contains will be named Application_Form_*

How do I register the new directory with the autoloader?

Thanks…

Kim

Answer 1

You don’t need to register the new directory with the autoloader. If you create a form it should look something like like this:-

application/forms/Myform.php

class Application_Form_Myform extends Zend_Form
{
    public function init()
    {
        //Put your code here
    }
}

You can then instantiate your form like this (in your controller for example):-

$myform = new Application_Form_Myform();

Zend Framework will then autoload the class for you.

http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/learning.quickstart.create-form.html

There is an explanation of Autoloading in Zend Framework in the manual.

An extract from that:-

Zend Framework has borrowed an idea from » PEAR, whereby class names have a 1:1 relationship with the filesystem. Simply put, the underscore character (“_”) is replaced by a directory separator in order to resolve the path to the file, and then the suffix “.php” is added. For example, the class “Foo_Bar_Baz” would correspond to “Foo/Bar/Baz.php” on the filesystem. The assumption is also that the classes may be resolved via PHP’s include_path setting, which allows both include() and require() to find the filename via a relative path lookup on the include_path.

Which basically means that folders don’t all need to be registered in the autoloader. It can quite happily find files in folders anywhere under the application or library/Zend folders so long as you follow the naming convention and proper casing.

The default folders under application/ that end with an ‘s’ are special cases specifically dealt with in Zend_Application_Module_Autoloader::initDefaultResourceTypes() and should not be confused with the main autoloading mechanism.