Question

I’m writing API implementation and my main API class has __call() magic method:

public function __call($name, $params)
{
    if (in_array($name, $this->resources))
    {
        require_once APPPATH . 'resources' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $name . '.php';

        $class_name = ucfirst($name);

        return new $class_name($params);
    }
}

So basically in my application if I write

$api->product()->get($product_id); 
// or
$api->product()->post($product); 

resources/product.php file is included, Product object created and appropriate method called. Is this a correct way to do lazy loading and is there a better way to implement an API?

Answer 1

You can add your own autoloader afterwards. If “first” autoloader does not find file you have maybe a second logic for it or a third…
spl_autoload_register(); @http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.spl-autoload-register.php

In that situation you dont have to care about your frameworks/applications autoloader.