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Using PHP Objects to Access Your Database Tables (Part 1)

By Tony Marston
2005-04-05

Using this Class
So much for defining the class with its properties and methods, but how do you go about using it in your PHP scripts?

The first step is to create a subclass for each physical database table which extends this base class. This must contain its own class constructor specifically tailored to reflect the details of the database table in question. This is done using code similar to the following: 

require_once 'default_table.class.inc';

class Sample extends Default_Table

{

    // additional class variables go here

    function Sample ()

    {

        $this->tablename       = 'sample';

        $this->dbname          = 'foobar';

        $this->rows_per_page   = 15;

        et cetera ...

				

    } // end class constructor



} // end class
Having created a subclass you are then able to include the class definition in any script and create one or more objects from this class. You are then able to start using the class to communicate with your database, as shown in the following code snippets: 

include 'sample.class.inc';

$dbobject = new Sample;



// if $where is null then all rows will be retrieved 

$where = "column='value'";

// user may specify a particular page to be displayed

if (isset($_GET['pageno']) {

   $dbobject->setPageno($_GET['pageno']);

} // if

$data = $dbobject->getData($where);

$errors = $dbobject->getErrors();

if (!empty($errors)) {

   // deal with error message(s)

} // if
All data retrieved will now be available as a standard associative array in $data. The following values may also be retrieved if required: 

$dbobject->numrows will return the total number of rows which satisfied the selection criteria. 

$dbobject->pageno will return the current page number based on $rows_per_page. 

$dbobject->lastpage will return the last page number based on $rows_per_page.
In the following code snippets $fieldarray may be the $_POST array, or it may be constructed within your PHP script. 

$fieldarray = $dbobject->insertRecord($fieldarray);

$errors = $dbobject->getErrors();



$fieldarray = $dbobject->updateRecord($fieldarray);

$errors = $dbobject->getErrors();



$fieldarray = $dbobject->deleteRecord($fieldarray);

$errors = $dbobject->getErrors();




Tutorial pages:
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