Using a singleton in PHP is the best way to pass an object throughout your application without having to set the values all over again.
A singleton allows you to declare an instance and then call that instance from anywhere in your code base.
Here's my base class for a singleton. Using it is easy, and by using a base class I can simple extend it for future new singleton classes.
PHP Code:
<?php
class Singleton
{
/**
* @var Singleton
*/
protected static $_instance = null;
protected function __construct()
{
}
/**
* Retrieve an instance of the given class.
*
* @return Singleton
*/
public static function getInstance()
{
if (!isset(static::$_instance)) {
static::$_instance = new static;
}
return static::$_instance;
}
protected function __clone()
{
}
}
You can use it like this:
PHP Code:
<?php
Singleton::getInstance();
Obviously you'll need to create a new class for a specific purpose, such as a database connection resource, or shopping cart data.
But by using the Singleton base class you'll only need to write your setters and getters.