Who can explain the little ObjectFactory

[pletsch]

Dear phpbuilder user,

my intention is write Framework-System on one hand and plugin modules (classes) for the Framework on the other hand.
The target is to instantiate a PHP class by a string designation.

Enough of this poor english...lets show the code I wrote to define my questions.
The whole solution consists of four code files:

---

output.php

Code:

<?PHP

require ("/home/httpd/dev/cmf/cmf.class.inc");

$obj_cmf = new cls_cmf;

$obj_cmf->display_content("news", "alive");

?>

---

cmf.class.inc:

<?PHP

class cls_cmf {

    function display_content($str_modulename, $str_dataservicename) {

        include("/home/httpd/dev/cmf/" . $str_modulename . ".inc");

        call_user_method($str_dataservicename, $objMODULE);

    }

}

?>

---

news.inc:

<?PHP

if (!class_exists("cls_news")) {
    include("/home/httpd/dev/cmf/news.class.inc");
}

$objMODULE = new cls_news;

?>

---

news.class.inc

<?PHP

class cls_news {
    function alive() {
        echo "I am alive !";
    }
}

?>

---

Please copy the files in directory
and change the Path in the INCLUDE-Statements

I uses the latest php4 version.

This code works together fine. But why?Coincidence was the reason for writing the code in that way.

1. Including a Class definition within a Class function !?!? Where is the scope of the class ?

2. You can substitute the INCLUDE by REQUIRE and it also works very well.

3. Is this behaviour of PHP a bug or a feature ?

4. If calling:
   $obj_cmf->display_conten("news", "alive");
   in output.php again. The class definition is still in scope !?

Thank you for all requests. If more detail information is needed I will post it in the forum.

Frank Pletsch