Question

This is the first time I’ll be making a PHP application that will have many users accessing it so where as before I didn’t have to worry about loading speeds, I do now.

These are the ways I have thought of doing it but they all seem to be a bit “hack-ish” and I’m sure there is a better way.

For the index page I could have this:

<h1><?php $job->getTitle($id); ?></h1>
<p><?php $job->getDescription($id); ?></p>
<p><?php $job->getSomethingElse($id); ?></p>

And the class as:

function getTitle($id) {
    $query = "SELECT title FROM table WHERE id = $id";
    $result = $db->query($query);

    $row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC);
    echo $row['title'];
}

function getDescription($id) {
    $query = "SELECT description FROM table WHERE id = $id";
    $result = $db->query($query);

    $row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC);
    echo $row['description'];
}

etc…

Or I could have one function, call all the results to an array. Store them as a String and explode them as I need them.

My other idea was similar to above, except I do everything in the class and echo the html.

What is the best way in terms of speed to output what I want?

Answer 1

Jee, have You ever listened about the MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern?

Though I do not want You to rewrite whole Your app, You still can get used to using of Models… By this (in very simple way) way You create a class Model that has a __construct($id) method that queries the DB to load all the necessary data and store them within a private/publi/protected (whatever makes You feel good) properties.

Then You call these getXYZ() methods on that model that only returns it’s property values…

Like this:

class Article {
private $title;
private $description;
private $somethingElse;

    public function __construct($id) {
        $query = "SELECT title, description, somethingElse FROM table WHERE id = $id";
        $result = $db->query($query);

        $row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC);
        $this->title = $row['title'];
        $this->description = $row['description'];
        $this->somethingElse = $row['somethingElse'];
    }

    public function getTitle() {
        return $this->title;
    }

    public function getDescription() {
        return $this->description;
    }

    public function getSomethingElse() {
        return $this->somethingElse;
    }

That’s it… Just one query to retrieve all the data…

In a case You want to also edit this model You can create also a setXYZ($value) methods that will set $this->XYZ = $value; and a save() method that will update this very concrete row in the database…

These methods (get and set) are called getters and setters…