Question

If I have:

class main {
   //hello
}

class child1 {
    function love($v) {
    }
}

class child1 {
    function hate($v) {
    }
}

function __autoload($file) {
    include_once($file . '.php');
}

Is there a way I can set this up so that I can do

$main = new main();
$main->hate();
$main->love();

and still

• keep them as seperate classes, and

• use the autoloader for the child classes?

  I think even if the child classes extend the main class, that I can’t access the child methods from the parent class. Is that correct? If so, is there something like a reverse extends which injects the child class properties/methods into the main class?

---

Update 1

Okay, so it looks like there’s nothing straight-up built in to php to acheive this (Thanks everyone for the answers). How about I write up my goal and maybe you or someone you know can suggest a way to acheive this?

I would like to have one main class. I then have a set of subclasses which operate like grouped function libraries. Each of these subclasses is __autoloaded when needed to acheive an end. So for example, I have a subclass of file upload & processing functions, a subclass of database interaction functions, a subclass of xml processing functions, and so on.

I want to use this like: call the main class at the top of every script $main = new main();. Then, later on, an image processing method from a child class (which has not been loaded) is needed, so I call
$main->methodFromChildClass(); which will cause that child class to be autoloaded and the method used.

I am hoping in this way to optimize which files are loaded, and keep things well organized. I’m fairly new to oop. Is there a way to achieve this type of organization now?

Answer 1

I think you’re interested in is called traits, which are not available in the current release of PHP, but will be in the next version, and is available in trunk if you check out the source from SVN and compile yourself.

For more information, see http://wiki.php.net/rfc/traits