constructor help

[chopps]

Hello all,

 

I have been trying to create a new constructor function using OOP PHP that will automatically encrypt passwords before they are sent to the database.  However, I am not sure if my understanding of constructors is wrong if I am just not doing it right.  As I understand it a constructor function will allow you to perform an operation on an object before the object is used.  I have included some snippets of my code and would appreciate any insight on this matter:

 

Code from the User object is below:

 

    function __construct($encrypt_pass) {

          $this->password = $encrypt_pass;

}

    public function new_user() {

          $create_new_user = new User();

          if(isset($create_new_user->id)) {

            $create_new_user->update();

          } else {

          return false;

    }

  }

    public static function authenticate($username="", $password="") {

          global $db;

          $username = $db->escape_value($username);

          $password = $db->escape_value($password);

 

          $sql  = "SELECT * FROM users ";

          $sql .= "WHERE username = '{$username}' ";

          $sql .= "AND password = '{$password}' ";

          $sql .= "LIMIT 1";

          $result_array = self::find_by_sql($sql);

          return !empty($result_array) ? array_shift($result_array) : false;

}

 

The following code is from the administrative script to create a new user:

 

<?php

if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {

  $create_new_user = new User();

  $create_new_user->username = trim($_POST['username']);

  $create_new_user->password = trim($_POST['password']);

  $create_new_user->first_name = trim($_POST['first_name']);

  $create_new_user->last_name = trim($_POST['last_name']);

  $create_new_user->email = trim($_POST['email']);

 

  if($create_new_user && $create_new_user->create()) {

    $session->message("echo $username has been successfully added as a new us$

    redirect_to("index.php");

} else {

  $message = "There was an error while creating the new user.  Please contact$

}

} else {

  $username ="";

  $password ="";

  $first_name="";

  $last_name="";

  $email="";

}

?>

 

The following snippet is from the login page:

 

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {

  $username = trim($_POST['username']);

  $password = trim($_POST['password']);

 

  $found_user = User::authenticate($username, $password);

 

if ($found_user) {

  $session->login($found_user);

  log_action('Login', "{$found_user->username} logged in.");

  redirect_to("index.php");

    } else {

    $message = "Username/password combination incorrect.";

  }

} else {

  $username = "";

  $password = "";

}

?>

 

Since I am using the sha algorithm built into PHP I figured it would be best to build it into the object so it would occur automatically. 

[shlumph]

The constructor is called right when you create the object. You can specify as many parameters as you want. In your case, it should look something like this:

<?php
//class constructor
function __construct($encrypt_pass) {
    $this->password = sha1($encrypt_pass);
}

//later on
$password = 'test123';
$user = new User($password);

//Should echo a hash of 'test123'
echo $user->password;

 

It might be worth while to pass an array to the constructor, initializing all of the class variables. Or, creating a populate($array), or setOptions($array) function. The function will iterate through the array, setting up each class variable appropriately.

[chopps]

Yeah, at least I had the constructor part right, lol.  Thank you very much for the advice.

[shlumph]

No problem, have fun coding OOP