The Evolution of PHP Object Oriented Coding Standards for Classes in PHP 5

Since the first release of PHP, the scripting language has taken on a more structured object oriented form over time. With the release of PHP version 5, the language is now thoroughly modernized with a variety of object oriented features that have transitioned PHP from a basic web-based page language to a modern scripting standard.

While the onset of PHP marked an evolution in web coding standards, OOP entered the language libraries in earnest with PHP 3 and 4. With the release of version 5, the language can now handle a wide variety of modern scripting techniques including object oriented features. At the core of the features is a modern way to introduce and design classes, which allows for specification of object classes so you can scale your code over large scripting projects.

In order to call a class with a variety of properties you simply have to utilize the command class class_name { which allows you to begin writing code including properties of var (variables) for a given class, which can be called, printed or modified over time.

With PHP 5 you can extend the basic concept of a class to a variety of class types including private, public and protected classes. As a result, you can write secure member-based applications in a streamlined fashion with unique types of classes. You can verify requirements for classes are met through scripting within PHP 5 allowing you to write a qualification function within a given class. For example, if we wanted to check system or membership requirements in order to confirm the user can run a certain script we could write:

function qual()

{

if($user->membership < premium)

die("A premium membership is required to enter this section.");

}

With each unique class type you can define them as public, private (which restricts access even from child classes) or protected (which gives you the ability to declare the access level within each child class.) Writing more intricate, involved classes in PP can provide you with insights into how to properly construct object oriented statements for large scale sites. Another option to customize your classes is to define methods, which are specialized functions contained within a class. You can call a method from a class directly to get output in the context of class variables, allowing you to more directly connect with information according to class-wide parameters.

An advanced object oriented feature within PHP 5 is constructor methods which calls a method within an object, allowing you to streamline construction of basic scripts within your site. Rather than defining the entire properties for a given class you can immediately call the constructor method and proceed to write the functional code within the class. Writing complex, protected and detailed classes in modern PHP 5 moves the language much closer to a modern object oriented (OOP) structure). With common libraries the language has moved closer to a complete OOP library to mirror the options in modern PHP frameworks as well as competing languages such as Ruby on Rails.