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10.

OO Best Practice: Centralizing the Connection

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Ready for the next problem? Our PDO object is configurable, but we're still creating it inside of ShipLoader. What's going to happen if we add a battle table and a BattleLoader? Will it also need to create its own PDO object? Right now - yea. So if we have 50 tables, that means 50 separate connections. The horror!

I want one connection that every class uses.

Here's the goal: move the new PDO() call out of ShipLoader so that it can be created in a central location and used by everyone. How? By using the same strategy we just learned with configuration. If you want to move something out of a service class, add it as a __construct() argument and pass it in.

Adding a $pdo __construct Argument

Let's do it! Instead of passing in the 3 database options, we need to pass in the whole PDO object. Replace the 3 arguments with just one: $pdo. Give it a type-hint to be great programmers. Next, remove the three configuration properties. And back in __construct(), we already have a $pdo property, so set that with $this->pdo = $pdo.

74 lines | lib/ShipLoader.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
class ShipLoader
{
private $pdo;
public function __construct(PDO $pdo)
{
$this->pdo = $pdo;
}
// ... lines 11 - 71
}
// ... lines 73 - 74

Time to simplify the getPDO() function. We don't need to worry about creating the object anymore. Instead, just return the property:

74 lines | lib/ShipLoader.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
class ShipLoader
{
// ... lines 5 - 58
private function getPDO()
{
return $this->pdo;
}
// ... lines 63 - 71
}
// ... lines 73 - 74

Again: big picture: if you need to remove something from a service class - whether it's configuration or an object - remove it, and add it as an argument to the __construct() function.

Creating PDO

But now, we need go to index.php and change the arguments we're passing to the new ShipLoader(). We're not passing these three configuration pieces anymore. Copy those. Above this, create the PDO object. $pdo = new PDO() and paste in the arguments:

126 lines | index.php
// ... lines 1 - 3
$pdo = new PDO(
$configuration['db_dsn'],
$configuration['db_user'],
$configuration['db_pass']
);
// ... lines 9 - 126

Below, pass $pdo as the only argument to new ShipLoader():

126 lines | index.php
// ... lines 1 - 3
$pdo = new PDO(
$configuration['db_dsn'],
$configuration['db_user'],
$configuration['db_pass']
);
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$shipLoader = new ShipLoader($pdo);
// ... lines 12 - 126

Ok, let's try it! Still works. Geez - we're unstoppable today.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only place we need this. Copy the $pdo and $shipLoader code and paste it into battle.php:

114 lines | battle.php
// ... lines 1 - 3
$pdo = new PDO(
$configuration['db_dsn'],
$configuration['db_user'],
$configuration['db_pass']
);
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$shipLoader = new ShipLoader($pdo);
// ... lines 12 - 114

Choose some ships to battle and.... Engage. And that still works too!

The Big Important Takeaway

Ready for the big important takeaway? Don't include configuration or create new service objects from within a service. Even though the PDO class comes from PHP, it is a service class: it does work. If we create that service object from within a class, we can't easily share it or control it.

Instead, create all of your service objects in one place and then pass them into each other. This stuff is hard - a lot of systems violate the heck out of these rules! And that's ok - I want you to learn to become a great object-oriented developer, so we're looking at the best way to do things.

The downside is that the code to create the service objects is getting a bit complicated. And it's duplicated! Dang it - it's not right yet. Let's fix that next by learning another awesome strategy.