PROBLEM
Let’s assume we have the following project structure with src/model/Person.php created…
.
├── composer.json
├── composer.lock
├── logs
├── public
├── src
│ ├── model
│ │ └── Person.php
│ ├── dependencies.php
│ ├── middleware.php
│ ├── routes.php
│ └── settings.php
├── templates
├── tests
└── vendor
… and the class may look something like this…
// src/main/Person.php
class Person
{
public $name;
public $age;
public function __construct(string $name, int $age)
{
$this->name = $name;
$this->age = $age;
}
}
… and it is being used in other file…
// src/routes.php
use Slim\Http\Request;
use Slim\Http\Response;
$app->get('/[{name}]', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
$person = new Person('mike', 50);
// ... do something
return ...
});
When hitting the given route from the browser, we get the following error:-
Type : Error
Message: Class 'Person' not found
File : /path/to/app/src/routes.php
Line : 7
SOLUTION #1: Using import/require
One way to solve this is to use include or require statement:-
// src/routes.php
require 'model/Person.php';
use Slim\Http\Request;
use Slim\Http\Response;
$app->get('/[{name}]', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
$person = new Person('mike', 50);
// ... do something
return ...
});
SOLUTION #2: Using autoloading
Another approach is to leverage PSR-4 autoloading.
First, create a namespace in Person.php:-
// src/main/Person.php
namespace App\Model;
class Person
{
public $name;
public $age;
public function __construct(string $name, int $age)
{
$this->name = $name;
$this->age = $age;
}
}
Second, in the file that consumes that model, specify a use statement to alias that model so it doesn’t need to be fully qualified with the given namespace in order to use it:-
// src/routes.php
use App\Model\Person;
use Slim\Http\Request;
use Slim\Http\Response;
$app->get('/[{name}]', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
$person = new Person('mike', 50);
// ... do something
return ...
});
Third, in composer.json, create the autoload block and specify the namespace mapping in it:-
{
...
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"App\\Model\\": "src/model/"
}
},
"autoload-dev": {
"psr-4": {
"Tests\\": "tests/"
}
},
...
}
Finally, run composer dump-autoload to regenerate vendor/composer/autoload_psr4.php. This file keeps track the list of classes needed to be included in the project.
