Singleton Classes in PHP
Provided by Leumas Naypoka / www.apphp.com
Introduction
In this tutorial we'll learn how to create and use singleton classes. A singleton class is a class that can be instantiated only once. This is may be useful when only one object of certain class is needed to coordinate across your system. While it may not come up frequently, it can be a useful technique when it simply doesn't make sense to have more than one instance of a class.
Implementation
To attain this target we cannot instantiate it directly using the new keyword. Instead, we must use
a static method of the class to create and access the instance.
- To prevent direct instantiation by making the constructor private (optional)
- To store the only instance of the class as a static property of the class.
- Have to provide a static method to access the instance. The instance is created the first time this method is called.
So let's create our first singleton class that called MySingleton. The code below defines this class, including
the private constructor so it cannot be directly instantiated.
<?php
class MySingleton
{
private function __construct(){
// constructor code here it will be called once only
}
public function someMethod(){
echo "Doing something!";
}
}
?>
The next step we do is to add a static property called $_instance. We need to declare it private so it cannot be
accessed except through the static method we'll also create. The convention for the singleton accessor method's name
is getInstance (or init, depending on your preferences).
<?php
class MySingleton
{
private static $_instance;
private function __construct(){
// constructor code here it will be called once only
}
public static function init(){
if(self::$_instance == null){
self::$_instance = new self();
}
return self::$_instance;
}
public function someMethod(){
echo "Doing something!";
}
}
?>
The init() method first checks if the $_instance property is a MySingleton.
If it's not, the one and only instance is creating. Once it has been created it may be returned.
The following code shows you how to create and use the object of singleton class.
<?php
require_once('MySingleton.php');
$obj = MySingleton::init();
$obj->someMethod();
?>
You may see, that creating and working with singleton class is not so hard, but what about automatic creating of singlon class? If your class inherits from some base class you may implement it in a following way.
Lets say, you have a class named News (the base class) and it's successors LocalNews and MusicNews.
You want each inheritor class will have init() method that will be inherited from the base
class.
First, we need to create a base (parent) class:
<?php
class News
{
private static $_instance;
/* returns instance of the class */
public static function init()
{
$className = get_called_class(); /* PHP >= 5.3 */
if(self::$_instance == null) self::$_instance = new $className();
return self::$_instance;
}
}
?>
Now, let's create a child class. We don't redefine init() method, it will be inherited from the base class:
<?php
class LocalNews extends News
{
private function __construct(){
// constructor code here it will be called once only
}
}
?>
The code below shows you how to create and use this object of singleton class.
<?php
$obj = LocalNews::init();
$obj->someMethod();
?>
In this case will be called init() method of the parent class, that will do all needed work for us.
That's all, now you know how to create and use singleton pattern for classes in PHP. If you need to debug your
application, you may add some log code in constructor of your child class to check how many times it will be called
(if you created you application as expected - it will be printed one time only).
<?php
class LocalNews extends News
{
public function __construct(){
echo "I'm called! <br />";
}
}
$obj1 = LocalNews::init();
$obj2 = LocalNews::init();
$obj3 = LocalNews::init();
?>
Conclusion
There are various different ways of implementing the Singleton design pattern in PHP. This pattern is a very useful mechanism for providing a single point of object access in an object-oriented application. Regardless of the implementation used, this pattern provides a commonly understood concept that can be easily shared among design and for your development teams.
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