PHP Forum

**jim.thornton** · 09-18-2009, 04:37 PM

I'm creating a template for ZOO which is a component for Joomla. I've never had the time to learn OOP and so I'm having trouble accessing (via code) the value within a nested object.

If I run the following code:

PHP Code:


			
<?php print("<pre>".print_r($elements,true)."</pre>"); ?>

I get a pre-formatted nested for of the $elements array which contains both objects and arrays.

Here is the structure (output):

Code:

I'm trying to insert the code within the [boxheading] ElementType Object.

I've tried:

$elements->boxheading
$elements->boxheading->value
$element->boxheading

However, I either get an error or nothing. I know the value is set in the backend and the value should come out as "Destination Information".

How can I access this variable?

**NullPointer** · 04:59 PM

Is the boxheading object public or private? I forget which is the default in PHP but if it is private you can't access it or its member variables from outside the object. One solution obviously would be to set it to public. The solution I lean towards however would be to create a public method within the boxheading object for accessing that member variable:

PHP Code:


			
private class boxheading

{

     private $value;

     .

     .

     .

     public function getValue()

     {

          return $this->value;

     }

}

and another method in the parent object to call the method and return its value:

PHP Code:


			
public function getBoxheadingValue()

{

     //access the getValue method from an instance of the

     //boxheading class

     return $this->boxheading->getValue();

}

Also, do you have an instance of the boxheading object? If not you can only access static methods and variables from the definition:

PHP Code:


			
class Foo

{

     public static $staticVar = 'hello world';



     public static function staticFunction()

     {

          return 'hello world';

     }

}



echo Foo::$staticVar;

echo Foo::staticFunction();

**jim.thornton** · 09-18-2009, 04:53 PM

The coding is already done as this is a component already working for Joomla. It is definitely public. I just don't know the actual syntax to access the variable.

**NullPointer** · 09-18-2009, 05:16 PM

Can you post the code? If your instance of the boxheading class is public and the variable is public, then you should be able to access it like this:

PHP Code:


			
$elements->boxheading->value;

Obviously you already tried that so there must be something else going on.

**jim.thornton** · 09-18-2009, 11:41 PM

I can't post that specific code because I don't know where the code is that you need. Let me explain further:

This ZOO component allows for dynamic templates. What happens is you create a Type of template (ie. product, download, etc). From there, you select the elements that you want to add to the Type. Lets say you want to add a TEXT value (which is what this "boxheading" is. From there you save the type. Then when you add an item of this type the system will ask the admin (person adding the item into ZOO) for a text string. That value is what I'm trying to access.

Here is the code for the TEXT element:

Code:

<?php
/**
* @package   Zoo Component
* @version   1.0.7 2009-09-02 14:42:37
* @author    YOOtheme http://www.yootheme.com
* @copyright Copyright (C) 2007 - 2009 YOOtheme GmbH
* @license   http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GNU/GPLv2 only
*/

// no direct access
defined('_JEXEC') or die('Restricted access');

// register parent class
JLoader::register('ElementSimple', ZOO_ADMIN_PATH.'/elements/simple/simple.php');

/*
   Class: ElementText
       The text element class
*/
class ElementText extends ElementSimple {

	/*
	   Function: Constructor
	*/
	function ElementText() {

		// call parent constructor
		parent::ElementSimple();
		
		// init vars
		$this->type  = 'text';
	}

	/*
		Function: getSearchData
			Get elements search data.
					
		Returns:
			String - Search data
	*/
	function getSearchData() {
		return $this->value;
	}

	/*
	   Function: edit
	       Renders the edit form field.

	   Returns:
	       String - html
	*/
	function edit() {
		$value = htmlspecialchars(html_entity_decode($this->value, ENT_QUOTES), ENT_QUOTES);

		// set default, if item is new
		if ($this->default != '' && $this->_item != null && $this->_item->id == 0) {
			$value = $this->default;
		}

		return JHTML::_('control.text', $this->name.'_value', $value, 'size="60" maxlength="255"');
	}

}

**jim.thornton** · 09-18-2009, 11:42 PM

Sorry... I would give you more but I don't know how to "follow" OOP coding. I find it quite confusing and it is usually only through intensive trial and error that I can figure it out. I just couldn't figure out this one.

I thought that buy seeing the Object/Array structure that you could tell me.