Help with jsp-php transition for shopping cart

Necros

Hi all,

I picked up a client recently that wants a ecommerce site done in php. I have plenty of experience doing this with both jsp and asp, but never php. I thought it would be interesting to take this on to add to the skills.

Here's how I normally do things with java, can I do this with php?

The cart I wrote and normally use is a java object. It has get/set methods for items, prices, quantity, whatever. It then has calculation and display methods to output html. When a client starts shopping I instantiate a new cart object, throw it in their session, then access it whenever needed in that manner.

Can I do this with php? Is there such thing as a stand-alone object that I can call methods on? If not, where does one store shopping cart transactional data?

Thanks!

drawmack

anything you can do in jsp or asp you can do in php

Necros

Um, OK. I guess that doesn't really answer my question though.

To clarify, I am instantiating a java class not a jsp page. Call it a server persistant object or a data bean, whatever. I was hoping I could do this in php, thus the question of how to do...

BigBadKev

hi Necros

I have a open source carparts project if you want a full copy, it has a debugger, objects, and will do what you are looking for as an example, I am new to PHP as well but I think this will help you, drop your email here and i will post it to you.

kevin

dalecosp

Much of your class code and associated routines should tranlate into PHP. It may be highly dependent on the PHP server version ... (the brand spankin' new) PHP5 has much more support for object-oriented programming techniques than PHP4 does, although there was generally enough stuff in v4 to do most things...but probably not in the way you are used to. Lots of workarounds, and lots of ampersands.....

The PHP5 object model is the most important feature of the new version. Objects are now implemented with implicit pass-by-reference behavior, and are access-restricted and overloadable. However, if you have clasees with multiple parents, PHP only has single-inheritance behavior. Destructors are also new to PHP5.

Keep in mind that until rather recently, demand for OOP techniques in PHP was not a large blip on the radar screen. Also, PHP is written in a time-tested, proven, fast standardized language, but not one that is object-oriented, and therefore wasn't designed that way at the outset. Lots of people still haven't got their heads around OOP...

Necros

Thanks dalecosp,

Unfortunately I am stuck with php4 currently. I did some looking at the open source carts out there (which I probably should have just done first) and I think I have an idea of how to utilize a similar technique to my normal one. My needs here are pretty simple, and I dont think limitations on things like inheritance will be a problem.

Quick question, if php5 is moving to a more OO architecture (or at least more OO abilities) is there anything I should watch out for in terms of the current features being depricated? I don't want the client to have to come back to me next year saying "Hey the site you built no longer runs now that our host moved to php5"

Thanks!

dalecosp

Well, other than wearing out the '7' key if you need a lot of referenced vars, you'll still probably be OK. Truth outed: my shopping carts have thus far all been implemented without any OOP techniques at all....

It's hard to find anyone talking about "backward compatibility" in PHP5. I pretty much echoed the 'party line'. I don't know what the development community might be talking about now (and do I really want to be on another email list??) but I can't imagine them doing anything to break PHP4 after the thing became the biggest web platform in the world....

Y'know, I did think of something rather heretical. Can you do this on your server?

<?php

$system = new Java("java.lang.System");
print("Java version: ". $system->getProperty("java.version") . "\n");

?>

If you've got the Java extension, wonder how easy it'd be? ('Course, I also wonder how well it'd work :rolleyes: )

Necros

Hey, that's pretty interesting. I actually have written several asp sites where I accessed my java classes through something called the trustlib in Windows. That actually works quite well. You either need to be the admin or have an admin that really trusts you in order to do this though.

Unfortunately in this case, I don't have much server access on this project, and I figure I may as well work in the manner that most other people are in PHP. I just need to get my head around a slightly different coding mentality. I started on the project last night and have been able to make pretty quick progress.

Thanks for the help, seems like there are a lot of resources around, so hopefully the project will go smoothly...

dalecosp

I find PHP "freeing" .... 😃

Of course, it lets you get away with a certain amount of, um, sloppiness<?>, for lack of a better term, compared to some languages. It really just puts the burden of thinking on you ...

Good luck!