A Class act - object oriented programming

Programming with objects (OOP) is both easy and flexible. It is one of the main tools in a programmers Toolbox.

Objects are created with PHP and most other programming languages, using Classes.

Basically an object is Defined. For example:- an Advert.

This object (advert) is then constructed within the computers memory.

The object has properties, for our advert object those could be an identity, an owner, and other information about the advert. Properties are simply variables within the class.

You can do things with the object, again using the advert object as our example. You can view it, create it, update it etc etc. The things you can do with an object are called methods, essentially the methods are functions of the class


As this blog progreses, it will become clear how powerfull OOP is, whilst retaining simplicity.

So without further ado, lets discuss what objects we will need in our Classified advertising site. as well as what we will want to do with these objects.


The objects, starting with the obvious, but not in any particular order.

Object	Properties	Methods
Advert
Image
Thumbnail
Banner
User
Session
Authorisation
Signup
Smarty
Database