Class Design .. To encapsulate or not

lucilue2003

Hello,

Quick question...

Currently I have a registration page that submits all the user data to Join.php.
Join.php imports file 'func.php' - a linear file with functions that returns pointed to Db, make queries and return results.
Join.php validates the user data and if errors are found, it redirects the user to the registration page and outputs all the errors found (I made an array of all encounted errors and placed the array in a session variable).

I am thinking of changin this way to something like this:
Registration pages sends data to class ProcessRegistration.php
ProcessRegistration.php then will take all the data posted ($_POST), and send it to a class User. Class user will import the 'func.php' file and and check if the user exists in the DB or not. Class user will validate the data and then if there are errors, the object user will be placed inside the session variable and then the error will be displayed.
Also, all the input fields will be repopulated with data from the object User. The input fields will be repopulated through get methods.

My primary reason to do this is because i didnt' want to place all the input fields into the session object and then repopulate them.. I think its easier on the eyes to do it with a whole object....

So what do you pros recommends?

konsu

hello, as you realise, there is no difference technically between two your approaches. and yes, i agree, using a class to hide this functionality makes the code more maintainable.

if i may add, redirecting a POST request to another page using an HTTP redirect and then re-submitting the posted data after the user has finished with this other page looks like a bad design to me. some browsers even won;t allow POST redirects.

lucilue2003

Example:
Page A sends Post Data to page B.
If Page B finds errors, it does this
header( PAGE A);

So are you saying that this is not allowed in some browsers?
Any suggestions on making it scaleable to all browsers.

konsu

it is ok to:

page A posts to page B
page B responds with 200 OK (and the response can contain any markup, including that of page A with the form pre-populated from the POST).

this i think is a bad design:

page A posts to page B
page B responds with 302 Redirect to page C

lucilue2003

Okay, I think i'm on the right path but your above example has me a bit confused.
Page A has the all the form fields.
Page B only checks for valid data and then returns to page A and outputs all the errors found. Page B never does any outputting. Page B does not have the form fields.. Page A is the only person that does the printing to the user.

konsu

how does page B "return" to page A? technically, in terms of code.

lucilue2003

This allows page b to return to page a
header('Location: register.php');
where page A = register.php

konsu

so, you do send a 302 redirect from page B.

lucilue2003

So how do you suggest I do this ?

konsu

consider posting the form to the page A itself, if there are errors page A will respond with the same form again, but prefilled with the data the user posted. this way you won't need to store the form data in a session. if everything is ok, page A can redirect to another page B which i think is ok to do because form submission has already been done, or page A can respond with some greetings message.