Object oriented versus function oriented for backend design in PHP? [closed]

Question

I am curious as I am currently using functions exclusively in my webpages. The MVC pattern is very interesting, and I know Code Igniter utilizes classes which works very well. I want to be able to keep my code as clean as possible, and I thought about trying to move my functions into classes.

Currently I am separating the files by logic, so I have functions that output the html with arguments that pass any dynamic content, and the functions which handle the user input. I also have functions that interact with the database. I require and include the necessary files between them. As one can tell, there are a lot of arguments being passed around. So that leads me to wanting to try a style of OOP in PHP that I can do the same without having any html inside of the actual class.

I really don't want to hear anything about frameworks as the point is to learn and incorporate these ideas into my own website. That being said, I am fairly new at web development, so I do not understand the many different styles in setting up the logic of websites.

I would like to get some insight on how to best clean up my code in OOP?

EDIT: It is fairly obvious people have strong feelings about frameworks. So I decided to make this very clear; MY WEBSITE IS A PROJECT FOR LEARNING. I WISH ONLY TO LEARN FROM IT. THEREFORE I do not wish to use a framework as it makes more sense for me to learn how it all works before making my life easier and actually use a framework. A FRAMEWORK FOR MORE ROBUSTS PROJECTS. Thank you.

Answer 1

Excuse me if I'm a bit off base here, but it sounds like what you really seem to be asking for is information about design patterns.

MVC, MVVM, MVP etc. are all design patterns for decoupling views from operations and data. That is, they help you structure your projects such a way that things make more sense, data flows in the correct directions, and you can potentially replace certain elements/layers without having to break the others.

If that's the case, 3 of the better known books are:

• GoF
• PoEAA
• Head First Design Patterns

None of which use PHP, but design patterns are generally language agnostic.

Answer 2

The basic structure for a MVC homemade framework would be like :

• Grab the request arrays ($_GET, $_POST, $_SESSION, $_COOKIE);
• Prepare a new response object
• Pass both to a front controller
  • The front controller job is to analyse your request and instantiate the right class to do the work (AKA the CONTROLLER (and probably the right method (AKA action)) and pass the request and response object
• Based ont the request params, in you action you call the required MODELs to do the heavy lifting, connect to the database, parse data, etc.
• After all the processing that had to occur, occured, you send all the processed data to an other class (AKA the VIEW) which will then process all the received data and store it in the response object as HTML.
• Return the response object and print it

That is the most basic MVC stack you could get to make sure you have separated your application by function.

Over that you could add a lot of stuff, classes for managing your database, your tables, your session, your cookies, your forms, your form validation, etc. In the end, that's why everybody will eventually tel you to use an existing framework, it can easily become a lot to maintain with almost no benefits since you won't have access to specific support and you might end up refactoring your framework a lot and thus, breaking backward compatibility between your different applications

Answer 3

You should definitely not use php functions that output HTML, that code is very hard to maintain and understand. Instead, make a folder called 'views' or 'templates' or just 'html', and put all your html files inside.

For example, if you have a signup form, put its html in views/signup_form.php, then inside your main signup.php (which contains only the php code for handling the sign up process), you can just do include views/signup_form.php when you want your html to be displayed.

You mentioned that you have to pass on a lot of arguments to your functions. A cool way to overcome that by using OOP, is to do this:

class Person
{
    //Arguments that you need to pass:
    private $name, $age, $gender;

    function setName($value)
    {
       $this->name = $value;
       return $this;
    }

    function setAge($value)
    {
       $this->age = $value;
       return $this;
    }


    function setGender($value)
    {
       $this->gender = $value;
       return $this;
    }
}

Then, to set all 3 arguments, you could do this:

$bob = new Person();   
$bob->setName( 'Bob' )->setAge( 30 )
       ->setGender( 'male' );

Hope this helps

Answer 4

First off what you are talking about isn't functional programming, it is more accurately imperative programming which has been proven not to scale to massive lines of code because of the lack of organization structures.

Object Oriented programming is a direct response to the mess that imperative programs had begun to become because of the in ability to maintain massive lines of code in the imperative style.

From your comment

but I just want to see what more experienced developers have to say about how they design the backend without an actual framework.

experienced programmers don't design backends without frameworks because they know from experience it is a waste of their time, they end up writing their own framework instead.

Unless you are in the business of writing frameworks, writing your own is not producing anything in your problem domain, and keeps you fixing bugs and updating your hacky not a framework framework rather than spending valuable time actually solving your domain specific problems.

For learning

Every popular framework for PHP is Open Source, start reading the Source of a few popular ones. They are popular because they work are best practices as far as PHP is concerned. This is how every programmer learns and understands what has come before them and how to leverage other more experienced peoples knowledge.

Answer 5

PHP & OOP

I will directly quote Wikipedia as I feel that their articles are clearer and quicker than I could ever be.

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs.

What you are currently doing could best be defined as imperative programming.

Imperative programming is a programming paradigm that describes computation in terms of statements that change a program state. In much the same way that imperative mood in natural languages expresses commands to take action, imperative programs define sequences of commands for the computer to perform.

PHP facilitates both but OOP is slowly becoming THE way to develop "good" applications.

Imagine having the choice between doing something the way that is easiest or the way that is best long-term ... most obviously lean towards what is easiest but understand the benefits of the other. OOP will allow you to understand software development better as well as making you applications more maintainable and logical but it will require an investment of time and practice. It is not something you will learn in one night but you will be glad to have it on your tool belt. I could even go out on a limb and say you may even find yourself being more efficient and developing better applications with it.

MVC

Trygve Reenskaug formulated the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern about as follows.

In software engineering, Model–View–Controller (MVC) is an architectural pattern that splits interactions between users and applications into three roles: the Model (business logic), the View (user interface), and the Controller (I/O).This separation of concerns facilitates the independent development, testing, and maintenance of each role.

Not using frameworks would hurt you in understanding MVC and in understanding its proper implementation. Now that is a double edged sword because modern frameworks aren't technically "MVC Frameworks" as they all interpret the pattern in their own way. If I were you, I would take a few popular frameworks (CakePHP, Yii, Symfony, Zend Framework, etc.) and take the time to try each and find the way that YOU like best and eventually learn to implement its way into a custom framework down the line. Learning MVC without a framework is possible but much more work.