Question

Let’s say I have a class file called smallBox.php:

<?php
class SmallBox {

    public function boxMethod() {}

}

I then include the smallBox.php file into another class using ‘require’:

<?php
class BigBox {

    public function __construct() {

        require 'smallBox.php';
        $box = new SmallBox();
        $box->boxMethod();

    }

}
?>

I am new to PHP OOP and MVC and was wondering if including smallBox.php in the BigBox class is considered bad practice?

Answer 1

Instead of manually require-ing PHP files, you should use autoloading of classes. Basically, it’s a mechanism of loading appropriate PHP files based on a class name.