PHP Hacks

Chapter 6. Application Design

Hacks 51–66: Introduction

Sitting on top of the database and below the HTML is application logic. This chapter concentrates on hacks that will add stability and flexibility to your application logic. Topics covered include security and roles, password management, login and session management, and e-commerce.

Create Modular Interfaces

Use dynamic loading to allow users to write snap-in modules for your application.

Most of the really popular PHP open source applications have an extension mechanism that allows for PHP coders to write small fragments of code that are dynamically loaded into the application. This hack demonstrates an XML-based drawing script that you can extend simply by placing new PHP classes into a modules directory; of course, the point is not as much the drawing code as the way you can extend it easily.

The Code

Save the code in Example 6-1 as modhost.php.

Example 6-1. The code that handles a modular PHP architecture

<?php class DrawingEnvironment { private $img = null; private $x = null; private $y = null; private $colors = array(); public function __construct( $x, $y ) { $this->img = imagecreatetruecolor( $x, $y ); $this->addColor( 'white', 255, 255, 255 ); $this->addColor( 'black', 0, 0, 0 ); $this->addColor( 'red', 255, 0, 0 ); $this->addColor( 'green', 0, 255, 0 ); $this->addColor( 'blue', 0, 0, 255 ); imagefilledrectangle( $this->image(), 0, 0, $x, $y, $this->color( 'white' ) ); } public function image() { return $this->img; } ...