CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpcomposer-phpautoload
Lawrence
Lawrence

Reputation: 358

Loading and using PHP class without namespace and without using 'use'

Is it possible to create a package for a class without a namespace, and instantiate it in my scripts without using the language construct use?

eg:

<?php
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
// use \Something_MyClass; (I don't want to use this 'use')
$mc = new MyClass();     // instead of $mc = new Something\MyClass()
?>

Copy of my comment below, just to clarify:

"This is because I am still using php 5.2. For legacy reasons I can't upgrade php to 5.3 or beyond. I can't use namespacing, but I want to use composer for autoloading and dependency manageament."

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2312

Answers (2)

Sven
Sven

Reputation: 70933

You can perfectly use PHP 5.2 syntax in your source code and combine it with Composer, even with Composer PSR-0 autoloading. Composer does not enforce any rules regarding the PHP version.

The only thing that you cannot work around is that Composer itself requires PHP 5.3.2 to run. But everything else is up to you.

In more details, your only option for "namespaced classes" with PHP 5.2 is to use the now dreaded Under_Score_Class_Name variant, which can be autoloaded with PSR-0. You'll always have to use the full classname (use and proper namespaces would allow you to use shorter names). That example classname must reside in the path /Under/Score/Class/Name.php and would be autoloaded with "autoload": {"psr-0": {"Under": "/"}}. You have no way to shorten that path with PSR-0 (one of the reasons PSR-4 was invented), it must always contain every word between underscores as a folder level, starting with the first word. The only thing you can change is that Composer does not require you to use a folder in the main directory of the library. You could use the path src/Under/Score/Class/Name.php and autoload with "psr-0": {"Under_": "src/"}.

Running Composer with a PHP version 5.3.2 or greater probably boils down to a) installing it and then b) explicitly point to this version when running Composer, like /usr/local/bin/php7.2.23/php composer.phar install.

In case you don't want to use long paths, simply using class names in the root namespace is allowed - note however that they must not duplicate existing class names from PHP itself. Without a common class name prefix like Under_ from the example above, your autoloading could be "psr-0": {"": "src/"}. Note however that this tells the Composer autoloader that every class may be found in your library. Composer will keep track of where it found something and not try again anywhere else, but it will still affect performance. So it is best to go with the common prefix.

Upvotes: 1

Bartosz Zasada
Bartosz Zasada

Reputation: 3900

It's not possible.

Even if you register with spl_autoload_register a function that, upon new MyClass(), will include a file with class Something_MyClass, that same line will fail, because you're trying to instantiate a class that doesn't exist.

Your best course of action is to upgrade your PHP to 5.3 (although the lowest supported version as of now is 7.1, and I highly recommend going there). You could, of course, create your own package manager (as YvesLeBorg suggested in comments), but that will get you even deeper into legacy, and make it even harder to maintain and upgrade PHP in the future, not to mention potential bugs and extra maintenance overhead.

Upvotes: 2

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