Using the __autoload feature in PHP

[litewarez]

The auto load function allowed you to do that little bit extra to prevent file inclusion errors.

and auto load function is executed under the following conditions

• A file that you attempted to include does not exists
• a class you attempt to initiate does not exists in global scope.

that might not seem helpfull but lets take a look at this example:

Directory Structure

index.php
-- includes /
---- database.class.php
---- profile.class.php

Now you will see the consistency above where within the includes folder we have several files disigned like so (<name[lower,no underscores]>.class.php), this needs to be the same layout for every file within that directory.

Now the traditional method of loading one of those files is like so:

include 'includes/database.class.php';
$Database = new Database();

but lets say loading the database is conditional! meaning that depending on certain factors the database may not be loaded for a perticular user! but you would usually still include it at the head of your script right.

now lets take a look at a little autoloader function.

function __autoload($class)
{
    $file = 'includes/' . strtolower($class) . '.class.php';
    if(file_exists($file))
    {
        require_once $file;
    }
}

Simple right, you can understand whats going on here, but what does this do? take a look at how we now initiate classes.

include 'functions/autoload.php'; //Load the above function.

$Database = new Database();
$Profile = new Profile();

aslong as the class names are named the same as the first segment of the file name, (case-insensitive) this works like a charm.

heres an example of Litewarez

Filename: includes/litewarez.class.php
Classname: class Litewarez{

So you can now use AutoLoaders

Happy Coding :P