CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpcodeigniterclassloader
bobo
bobo

Reputation: 8727

Why does Codeigniter assume I want to create an instance of the class when using $this->load?

In Codeigniter, when we use $this->load('class_name') in the controller, CI will try to create an instance of the class/model using its constructor.

But sometimes, I don't actually need an instance from that class, I just want to call some static functions from it. Also, there is a big limitation with $this->load('class_name'), it does not allow me to pass parameters to the constructor (unless we extend or modify the core class of CI).

I think the $this->load('class_name') function should only do a require_once on the class php file for me, and let me freely do things (create instance/call static functions) with the class in the controller.

Should I simply ignore this function and use require_once or writing my own __autoload function to load up the classes? This way, I just feel strange because it seems I am not writing codes inside the CI box.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 468

Answers (2)

MikeMurko
MikeMurko

Reputation: 2233

I found CodeIgniter's object creation and loading to be very limiting. I want full control over my code, and little magic in the background. I have instead started using Doctrine's Class Loader. It's very lightweight and is essentially SPL autoloading (also a good alternative). You don't need the whole Doctrine shebang with ORM and all that stuff, just the ClassLoader. There's some configuration tinkering to get this right, but it works wonders.

With PHP 5.3 I now have namespaced classes in the Application directory. For instance I created a new class in the Tests directory: Application\Tests\SomeTest.php

That test could look something like this:

namespace Tests;

class SomeTest {
  ...
}

I would use this class in my code (controllers, views, helpers) by simply using the fully qualified namespace (i.e. $test = new \Tests\SomeTest) or a "use" statement at the top of my code (use \Tests\SomeTest as SomeTest).

In this way I intend to replace all libraries and models with OO namespaced variants. There are many benefits to this: fast autoloading with SPL, full IDE intellisense support for classes/methods (CodeIgniter is really bad for that), your code is more portable to other frameworks or projects.

That said, I still use a lot of the CodeIgniter engine. This basically means I have $CI =& get_instance() in most of my classes. It's still a work in progress and I think the main reason I need CI is for it's database access. If I can factor that out ... and use something like Dependency Injection, then I won't need CodeIgniter in my classes at all. I will simply be using it for it's MVC framework, and using it's methods occasionally in my controllers.

I know this goes above and beyond your question, but hopefully it's some food for though - and it helps me to get it in writing too.

Upvotes: 1

lonesomeday
lonesomeday

Reputation: 237855

You can pass parameters to your constructor. See the "Passing Parameters When Initializing Your Class" section in the user guide.

Upvotes: 1

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