Initiating a Class – Creating an Object
Creating a Constructor Function
PHP Back to Basics #9: Working with Objects Support
What are classes and objects, and how can they be used to make your code more organized
In this tutorial, we look at what classes and objects are, and how they can be used to make your code more organized, with the benefit that they can easily be shared between people and projects. We then see how a class is defined, and how to add properties and methods to the class, as well as how to use a constructor function which is run automatically when a new object is created from the class.
Finally, we create an example class that can be used to easily generate HTML tables, so you only have to setup the appearance of the table such as its width, border etc, and the class does the hard work of actually generating the HTML code to create the table.
Gareth Downes-Powell
Gareth has a range of skills, covering many computer and internet related subjects. He is proficient in many different languages including ASP and PHP, and is responsible for the setup and maintenance of both Windows and Linux servers on a daily basis.
In his daily web development work he uses the complete range of Macromedia software, including Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Fireworks MX and Director to build a number of websites and applications. Gareth has a close relationship with Macromedia, and as a member of Team Macromedia Dreamweaver, he has worked closely in the development of Dreamweaver, and was a beta tester for Dreamweaver MX.
On a daily basis he provides support for users in the Macromedia forums, answering questions and providing help on a range of different web related subjects. He has also written a number of free and commercial extensions for Dreamweaver MX, to further extend its capabilities using its native JavaScript API’s or C++.
As a web host, Gareth has worked with a range of different servers and operating systems, with the Linux OS as his personal favourite. Most of his development work is done using a combination of Linux, Apache and MySQL and he has written extensively about setting up this type of system, and also running Apache and MySQL under Windows.