PHP MVC Class Structure

Question

I am creating a shopping cart in a MVC file structure and I have a shopping cart controller which has a group of functions for the frontend and backend.

Class ShoppingCartController{

    //frontend function
    public function viewCart(){
          //do something
          require 'view/viewCart.php';
    }

    //backend function
    public function viewOrders(){
          //do something
          require 'view/viewOrders.php';
    }
}

$controll = new ShoppingCartController();

if(isset($_GET['action']) && in_array($_GET['action'], get_class_methods($controll))){
    call_user_func(array($controll, $_GET['action']));
}

What I want to do is guard against anyone from the frontend being able to call a backend function. So I thought I would set the functions to protected and write two extended classes to regulate permissions. Like so

 Class ShoppingCartController{

    //frontend function
    protected function viewCart(){
          //do something
          require 'view/viewCart.php';
    }

    //backend function
    protected function viewOrders(){
          //do something
          require 'view/viewOrders.php';
    }
}

Class ShoppingCartFrontendController Extends ShoppingCartController{
    //frontend function
    public function viewCartExtended(){
          //do something
          $this->viewCart();
    }
}

Class ShoppingCartBackendController Extends ShoppingCartController{
    //backend function
    public function viewOrdersExtended(){
        //do something
        $this->viewOrders();
    }
}

Is that the way everyone else would do it or is there a better way?

Actually, there _is_ a better way. Use ready-made frameworks or at least have a look at how they do it. You'll get a lot of inspiration from them, I promise. — zafarkhaja, May 15 '12 at 11:49

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:09

2

I guess you could start by reading this old comment.

The basic idea is to wrap the controller on a "protective shell", which is responsible for protecting the object within.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:09

Community

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answered May 15 '12 at 15:37

tereško

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dibs · Answer 2 · 2012-05-15T12:14:25.203

If I were doing it I would add

//frontend function
public function viewCartExtended(){
      //do something
      $this->viewCart();
}

and

//backend function  
public function viewOrdersExtended(){
    //do something
    $this->viewOrders();
}

to my controller. One class to rule them.

//frontend function
private function viewCartExtended(){
      //do something
      require 'view/viewCart.php';
}  
//backend function
private function viewOrdersExtended(){
    //do something
    require 'view/viewOrders.php';
}
//public method
public function get_view($foo){
    //test if authed etc..
    switch($foo){
      case "foo":
          return viewCartExtended();
      break;
      case "bar":
          return viewOrdersExtended(); 
      break;
      ... .. . .
      .. .

And so on.
I'm no CI whizz though. So this may not be the "best" way; but it keeps it simple.

Thanks for the reply. I think I would use this if there where only the two functions and they where strictly interchangeable. But as the view functions build up the get_view() function would start to get very complicated first authorising the user then working out what view they need. — Theo Kouzelis, May 15 '12 at 12:17

PHP MVC Class Structure

2 Answers2