Question

Ok so i have the following code setup which seems to work fine:

user handler “module”:

class user_handler
{
    private $dbo;

    public function __construct($dbo)
    {
        $this->dbo = $dbo;
    }

    public function user_table_method()
    {
        $this->dbo->generic_db_method();
    }
}

the connection class:

class connection
{
    private $dbc;

    public $user;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->dbc = 'connection';
        $this->user = new user_handler($this);
    }

    public function generic_db_method()
    {
        echo '<p>doing stuff with ' . $this->dbc . '</p>';
    }
}

Then i can access user handler methods like so:

$dbc = new connection();
$dbc->user->user_table_method();

My question is this:

Would it be possible with a method in the connection class to create the _user object only when it’s required?

What i’m thinking of is a method that would be used like so:

$dbc->add_handle('user', 'user_handler');

Which would create a new public property called user from scratch and set it as a new
user_handler object:

// in more detail
public function add_handle($name, $module)
{
    if(!isset($this->/*somehow use $name*/))
    {
        $this->/*somehow use $name*/ = new /*somehow use $module*/();
    }
}

..so the new way to set it up would be like:

$dbc = new connection();
$dbc->add_handle('user', 'user_handler');
$dbc->user->user_table_method();

Thanks in advance! (looking at php 5.2 and up)

Answer 1

public function add_handle($name, $module)
{
    if(!isset($this->$name))
    {
        $this->$name = new $module();
    }
}

Then you would just do similar to how you were thinking:

$dbc = new connection();
$name = 'user';
$module = 'somemodule';
$dbc->add_handle($name, $module);
$dbc->user->user_table_method();

I’ve also renamed it from $_user to $user as I mentioned in the comment since it is public.