CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpoopconstructorphp-include
hyphen
hyphen

Reputation: 967

php accessing variables in constructor from included file

I have a class where I want to use an API, and I've got the api keys in a separate file in another directory.

The api key file is literally as simple as this:

$id = 'xxxxxxx';
$key = 'xxxxxxx';

This doesn't work:

include '/path/to/file-with-api-keys.php';

class MyApiClass {
    public function __construct($id, $token) {
        $this->client = new Client($id, $token);
    }
}

The code where I instantiate the class is in another php file I'm using to test, and it's extremely simple, just includes the class and then instantiates it:

include '/path/to/MyClass.php';

$result = new MyClass();
$result->myMethod();

echo $result;

The error I get is basically saying the 2 variables are null.

TWO QUESTIONS:

1) How can I access the value of the variables in my constructor? I've read elsewhere that using an include file directly in the method is bad practice, and also that using a global variable would be bad practice as well.

2) Somewhat related question, these files where I'm storing the api keys are in the same directory with my database connection details, but the directory is not outside the root. In this directory I have an .htaccess file with "Deny From All". Is this sufficient from a security standpoint, or should I do something else?

ok 3 questions...

3) Should I even bother keeping the api keys in separate files within this directory or just embed them into my class?

Hoping someone can give me best practices here. Thanks!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1782

Answers (1)

Piotr
Piotr

Reputation: 331

  1. The constructor won't read the variables from file-with-api-keys.php automagically. You must specify them like this when instantiating the class: $result = new MyClass($id, $key);

  2. The best practice is to store all your PHP scripts outside the webroot directory except index.php (aka front controller).

  3. Yes, you should bother :) All configuration, API keys etc. should be stored in separate files, outside your classes code. You shouldn't mix these two things. If you're going to use some version control system like Git, then you're going to commit your classes code without any configuration details. The latter will be in your .gitignore file. If you ever work in a team of programmers, then every one of them is going to have his separate configuration files.

Upvotes: 1

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