Object Oriented coding makes enormous sense when you're looking at a medium sized or larger application - but it's a complete change of thought process for the traditional structured programmer.

We ran an Object Oriented Programming in PHP course today, and the course concluded with me taking some sample data - web access logs - and starting to specify the classes suited for handling thet data for a variety of reports. Source code is [here].

You'll see that the example is all in a single file. Yes - it is, but that's just for initial testing; the first program is really no more than a test harness to make sure I have the object descriptions right. Before a program based on these classes went live, the classes would be split out into a separate required file ... but NOT to three separate files, as would be the case with a Java application.

As we read in records from the log file, we have to interpret them to make up visit objects. The "bull at a gate" approach to that would be to analyse the records in the main code, at least until we knew what type of object we were going to create. However, I have chosen to code a utility (factory) method within the code that will be within the class file - that way, the analysis code will be shareable between many programs, and will be hidden within (encapsulated in) the class structure. It all leads to a very simple main program file:

$rtab = array();
foreach (file("../weekend/ac_20090522") as $lyne) {
  if ($obj = addrecord($lyne)) {
    $current_ip = $obj->getip();
    if (! $rtab[$current_ip]) {
      $rtab[$current_ip] = $obj;
    } else {
      $rtab[$current_ip]->merge($obj);
    }
  }
}
 
foreach (array_keys($rtab) as $king) {
  $fp = $rtab[$king] -> getfirstpage();
  $pc = $rtab[$king] -> gettimes();
  $wot = $rtab[$king] -> getwhat();
  print ("From $king - $pc pages. Arrived at $fp - $wot<br>");
  }

On our Perl course, we have a section labelled Design MATTERS. How very true - and how very true in PHP as well!
(written 2009-08-27 17:30:35)

 H306 - PHP - Who is your visitor?
  [2667] Web page to telephone calls / links using an iPhone - (2010-03-08)
  [2343] World Flags in your PHP pages - (2009-08-10)
  [2135] What features does this visitors browser support? (PHP) - (2009-04-22)
  [1736] Current visitors from around the world - PHP - (2008-08-04)

Q907 - Object Orientation and General technical topics - Object Orientation: Design Techniques
  [2889] Should Python classes each be in their own file? - (2010-07-27)
  [2878] Program for reliability and efficiency - do not duplicate, but rather share and re-use - (2010-07-19)
  [2865] Relationships between Java classes - inheritance, packaging and others - (2010-07-10)
  [2785] The Light bulb moment when people see how Object Orientation works in real use - (2010-05-28)
  [2747] Containment, Associative Objects, Inheritance, packages and modules - (2010-04-30)
  [2741] What is a factory? - (2010-04-26)
  [2717] The Multiple Inheritance Conundrum, interfaces and mixins - (2010-04-11)
  [2523] Plan your application before you start - (2009-12-02)
  [2501] Simples - (2009-11-12)
  [2327] Planning! - (2009-08-08)
  [2170] Designing a heirarcy of classes - getting inheritance right - (2009-05-11)
  [2169] When should I use OO techniques? - (2009-05-11)
  [1538] Teaching Object Oriented Java with Students and Ice Cream - (2008-02-12)
  [1528] Object Oriented Tcl - (2008-02-02)
  [1435] Object Oriented Programming in Perl - Course - (2007-11-18)
  [1224] Object Relation Mapping (ORM) - (2007-06-09)
  [1217] What are factory and singleton classes? - (2007-06-04)
  [1047] Maintainable code - some positive advice - (2007-01-21)
  [836] Build on what you already have with OO - (2006-08-17)
  [831] Comparison of Object Oriented Philosophy - Python, Java, C++, Perl - (2006-08-13)
  [747] The Fag Packet Design Methodology - (2006-06-06)
  [656] Think about your design even if you don't use full UML - (2006-03-24)
  [534] Design - one name, one action - (2005-12-19)
  [507] Introduction to Object Oriented Programming - (2005-11-27)
  [236] Tapping in on resources - (2005-03-05)
  [80] OO - real benefits - (2004-10-09)

H108 - Objects in PHP
  [2922] Getting the OO design write - with PHP a example - (2010-08-14)
  [2921] Does copying a variable duplicate the contents? - (2010-08-14)
  [2774] PHP - Object Oriented Design in use - (2010-05-21)
  [2680] Static class members in PHP - a documented example - (2010-03-16)
  [2641] Object Oriented Programming in PHP - (2010-02-19)
  [2632] Shipping a test harness with your class in PHP - (2010-02-12)
  [2435] Serialization - storing and reloading objects - (2009-10-04)
  [2434] Abstract classes, Interfaces, PHP and Java - (2009-10-03)
  [2172] PHP4 v PHP5 - Object Model Difference - (2009-05-11)
  [2171] Cleaning up redundant objects - (2009-05-11)
  [2160] PHP - getclass v instanceof - (2009-05-07)
  [1925] Introduction to Object Oriented Programming - (2008-12-06)
  [1820] Sorting objects in PHP - (2008-10-04)
  [1819] Calling base class constructors - (2008-10-03)
  [1682] Accounts in PHP - an OO demo - (2008-06-19)
  [1535] OO PHP demonstration - comparing objects and more - (2008-02-08)
  [1153] Object Oriented Model - a summary of changes from PHP4 to PHP5 - (2007-04-18)
  [1027] Cue the music, I'm happy. - (2007-01-09)
  [720] Planning a hotel refurb - an example of a Gant chart in PHP - (2006-05-14)
  [485] North, Norther and Northest - PHP 5 Objects - (2005-11-04)
  [421] Don't repeat code - use loops or functions - (2005-08-21)
  [343] Should I use structured or object oriented? - (2005-06-10)
  [205] PHP5 lets you say no - (2005-02-07)
  [124] PHP v Java - (2004-11-20)
  [67] Object Oriented Programming in PHP - (2004-09-29)

Back to Making variables persistant, pretending a database is a variable and other Perl tricks

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Checking the database connection manually

Looking ahead to the Autumn season of training and accommodation
Lua Regular Expressions
Giving up on user input - keyboard timeout in Perl
Checking the database connection manually
Object Oriented programming - a practical design example
Making variables persistant, pretending a database is a variable and other Perl tricks
Handling XML in Perl - introduction and early examples
Wiltshire / Melksham Weddings - guest accommodation
Long job - progress bar techniques (Perl)
Designing your data structures for a robust Perl application