Object-Oriented PHP

Upgrading to PHP 5

As you're aware, the major change to PHP with version 5 is improved support for OOP. In this regard, two of the most important changes are the introduction of access modifiers and changed syntax for class construction. Both of these changes will have an impact on the DirectoryItems class.

Access Modifiers

Next to the concept of a class, access modifiers are arguably the most important feature of an OO language. The principal use of access modifiers is to describe and constrain data members and methods. The access modifiers we are concerned with in this chapter are public and private. The modifier private is used to modify or describe matters relating to the internal behavior of a class. The modifier public is used to describe ...