So I decided to make some classes in PHP so I can dynamically construct a menu bar using <ul>, <li> and <a> tags. Reason why is because I want to reuse this across projects.
First the Blob of Code, notice that I put in some debugging info in my code, because I'm actually a .NET developer and I dunno how to decently debug yet :s
<?php
// Menu Items <li><a href=\"$target\">$itemName</a></li>
class MenuItem {
public $order;
public $target;
public $itemName;
function __construct($itemName="", $target="", $order=0) {
$this->order = $order;
$this->target = $target;
$this->itemName = $itemName;
}
public function Build() {
//if $target is empty or $itemName is empty then return empty string (both must be present to generate an item)
if(strcasecmp($target,"") == 0 || strcasecmp($itemName,"") == 0) {
return "";
}
return "<li><a href=\"" . $target . "\">" . $itemName . "</a></li>";
}
}
//<li><a>$FirstMenuItem</i>
// Submenu Root Head Item: <li><a href=\"$(optional)Target\">$ItemName</a><ul>
// Holds a list of MenuItems and SubmenuRootItems
// Submenu Root End Item: </ul>
class SubMenu extends MenuItem {
protected $itemArray;
function __construct($itemName = "", $target = "", $order = 0) {
parent::__construct($itemName, $target, $order);
$this->itemArray = array();
}
public function Items() {
return $this->itemArray;
}
public function AddSubMenuItem ($subMenuItem) {
$retval = strcasecmp( get_class ($subMenuItem), "submenu") == 0 ? self::AddItem($subMenuItem) : false;
echo"<br>second dump<br>";
var_dump($this->itemArray); echo "<br>";
return $retval;
}
public function AddMenuItem ($menuItem) {
$retval = strcasecmp( get_class ($menuItem), "menuitem") == 0 ? self::AddItem($menuItem) : false;
echo"<br>second dump<br>"; //debug code
var_dump($this->itemArray); echo "<br>"; //debug code
return $retval;
}
protected function AddItem($item) {
$itemArray[$item->itemName] = $item;
echo "AddItem <br />"; //ugly debug code
var_dump($itemArray); //even more of it
return true;
}
public function Build() {
$buildHtml = "<li>";
$buildHtml .= strcasecmp($target, "") == 0 ? "<a>" : "<a href=\"" . $target . "\">";
$buildHtml .= $itemName . "</a><ul>";
$buildHtml .= BuildSubMenu(Items());
$buildHtml .= "</ul></li>";
}
public function BuildSubMenu($menuItems) {
$buildHtml = "";
echo "for each start". var_dump($menuItems) ;
foreach($menuItems as $menuItem) {
echo $menuItem;
$buildHtml .= $menuItem->Build();
}
return $buildHtml;
}
}
// Menu Root Element <ul id=\"menu\">
// holds a list of MenuItems and SubmenuRootItems
// Menu Root Closing Element </ul>
class MenuBuilder extends SubMenu {
function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
}
public function Build() { echo "<br><br><br>". var_dump($this->itemArray); echo "<br><br><br>".var_dump(parent::$this->itemArray);echo "<br><br><br>";//ugly debug code
$buildHtml = "<ul id=\"menu\">";
$buildHtml .= parent::BuildSubMenu($this->itemArray);
$buildHtml .= "</ul>";
return $buildHtml;
}
}
?>
The problem is that the whole thing isn't working, php obviously isn't .NET, but I really don't know how the following can be true. To test I made this little php page that does some calls to my new classes.
Write("Create menuBuilder...");
$menuBuilder = new MenuBuilder();
WriteLine("Done!");
Write("Create subMenu1...");
$subMenu1 = new SubMenu("Sub Menu 1");
WriteLine("Done!");
Write("Execute subMenu1->AddMenuItem...");
$subMenu1->AddMenuItem(new MenuItem("Menu Item 1.1", "#1.1"));
WriteLine("Done!");
Write("Create menuItem2...");
$menuItem2 = new MenuItem("Menu Item 2","#2");
WriteLine("Done!");
Write("Execute menuBuilder->AddSubMenuItem...");
$menuBuilder->AddSubMenuItem($subMenu1);
WriteLine("Done!");
Write("Execute menuBuilder->AddMenuItem...");
$menuBuilder->AddMenuItem($menuItem2);
WriteLine("Done!");
and after that there is a dump of the Items property on both $subMenu and $menuBuilder
The output in my browser of these calls baffles me completely:
Create menuBuilder...Done!
Create subMenu1...Done!
Execute subMenu1->AddMenuItem...AddItem
array(1) { ["Menu Item 1.1"]=> object(MenuItem)#4 (3) { ["order"]=> int(0) ["target"]=> string(4) "#1.1" ["itemName"]=> string(13) "Menu Item 1.1" } }
second dump
array(0) { }
Done!
Create menuItem2...Done!
Execute menuBuilder->AddSubMenuItem...AddItem
array(1) { ["Sub Menu 1"]=> object(SubMenu)#3 (4) { ["itemArray":protected]=> array(0) { } ["order"]=> int(0) ["target"]=> string(0) "" ["itemName"]=> string(10) "Sub Menu 1" } }
second dump
array(0) { }
Done!
Execute menuBuilder->AddMenuItem...AddItem
array(1) { ["Menu Item 2"]=> object(MenuItem)#4 (3) { ["order"]=> int(0) ["target"]=> string(2) "#2" ["itemName"]=> string(11) "Menu Item 2" } }
second dump
array(0) { }
Done!
So the AddItem function works, an item is added to the $itemArray and it gets dumped successfully. Then when the function returns to it's caller 'AddMenuItem' and I dump the same $itemArray again it's empty? I really don't get how this works :s