Ten minutes To PHP Objects

Written by Mike James

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Article Index
Ten minutes To PHP Objects
Methods
Inheritance
Buttons

Page 4 of 4

Finally all we need is a method to generate the appropriate HTML:

public function output()
{
 for($y=1;$y<=$this->ver;$y++)
 {
  for($x=1;$x<=$this->hor;$x++)
  {
   print "<input type=button ";
   print "value=".$this->names[$x][$y]." ";
   print "name=B".$y.$x.">\n";
  }
  print "\n<br>\n";
 }
}

The only complicated part of this method is the print statement which builds up an HTML tag something like:

<input type=button value=caption 
                       name= Browcolumn>

where caption is the value stored in the appropriate location of the $names array and rowcolumn is simply the row and column number that the button is in.

For example, the first button is:

<input type=button value=caption name= B11>

then:

<input type=button value=caption name= B12>

and so on.
If you enter all of this code into the file “buttonpad.inc” you can make use of it in a PHP page using something like:

<?php
include("buttonpad.inc");
?>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Buttons demo</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 <?php
  $pad=new buttonpad(3,3);
  $pad->SetSequentialLabels();
  $pad->output();?>
 </body>
</html>

Notice that the “include” has to be the first item in the page and that the included file has to start with <?php and end with >>. This might look complicated by notice that the PHP program is just:

$pad=new buttonpad(3,3);
$pad->SetSequentialLabels();
$pad->output();

and this generates a 3x3 labelled grid of buttons.

buttons

A button grid generated by a PHP class

Of course there are lots of big and small improvements you can make to the class. For example, it seems to make sense to allocate a default labelling for the buttons and this can be best done in the constructor:

public function __constructor($n,$m)
{
 $this->hor=$n;
 $this->ver=$m;
 $this->SetSequentialLabels();
}

It is very easy to create PHP classes that make use of state or session information. This makes it possible to take an object-oriented approach to problems such as user tracking - simply define a User class and create an instance for each user. In the same way you could build a shopping system based on a shopping cart class and so on. And when it comes to database manipulation, objects were just made for the job! The point is that there are times when an object-oriented approach really is justified and other times when you are probably better off just writing PHP script functions.

To access the final example as a php program file, once you have registered, click on CodeBin.

If you would like to know more about using objects to generate HTML see:

Object-oriented HTML generation

Introduction to PHP

phpcover

Getting started
Getting Started With NetBeans PHP - Local Projects
What PHP Does
PHP Variables and Expressions for Complete Beginners
PHP Control Structures 1 - if and else
PHP Control Structures 2 - switch and elseif
PHP loops
Advanced loops
Functions
Ten minutes to PHP objects
PHP Inner Functions And Closure
NetBeans Remote Projects and debugging

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

PHP Control Structures 1 - if and else

Getting to grips with programming or a new language is a matter of mastering the flow of control. This is the key idea in programming and understanding it makes the difference between a programmer and [ ... ]

+ Full Story

Ten Minutes to PHP

Want to get started with PHP but never found the time? Now you can write your first program in around ten minutes and understand where to go next.

+ Full Story

Comments

or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info

<ASIN:1449392776>

<ASIN:0994346980>

<ASIN:0596006306>

<< Prev - Next

Last Updated ( Thursday, 18 November 2021 )

Introduction to PHP

Contents

Comments