Design of a class.

[photo312]

I use php4. I have a question about filling out data for each variable in my User class.

<?php

class User{

var $userid;
var $username;
var $firstname;
var $lastname;
var $password;
var $email;
var $signupdate;
var $lastlogin;
var $city;
var $state;
var $zip;
var $registrationstatus;
var $activestatus;
var $forumname;

function User($userId){
	$this->userid=$userId;
}

function getFirstName(){
	return $this->firstname;
}

}//end class User

//**********************************************

class Trainer extends User{

var $experience;
var $trainerstyle;
var $reasonfortraining;
var $fieldofstudy;
var $degree;
var $yearsofexperience;
var $certifications;
var $educationalbackground;
var $specialization;
var $liabilityinsurance;
var $cpr;

function Trainer($id){
	$this->User($id);//passing it to the parent constructor
}

}//end Trainer class
?>

how do I fill the information in those classes. do I need to create another class that will fill out those values for me?
when I code this:

$Trainer = new Trainer(34);
$Trainer->getFirstName();
$Trainer->getExperience();

the classes are still empty so I get nothing....I need a way to fill out all the values . Should I include a function in Trainer class that fills out the trainer values and separate User class function that upon calling fills out user values in the User class?

Help me out...

[Ruben K.]

When using extensions, note that the functions in the extended class overwrite the ones in the base class.

[photo312]

i know dat
still didnt answer my question

[Zeldinha]

I see no function to retrieve data from a database or a file or anything (and assign it to the class variables). Did you simply not include them here or didn't write them at all?

[Daimaju]

class UserManager
{
    protected $conn;
    
    public function __construct()
    {
        $reg = Registry::getInstance();
        $this->conn = $reg->getDBConnection();
    }
    
    public function getUserById($id)
    {
        $stmt = $this->conn->prepareStatement('SELECT user_id, user_name, email FROM users WHERE user_id = ?');
        $stmt->setInt(1, $id);
        
        $rs = $stmt->executeQuery();
        $rs->next();
        $user = new User();
        $user->setUsername($rs->getString('user_name'));
        $user->setUserId($rs->getInt('user_id'));
        return $user;
    }
} 

Note that this is php5 code, with Creole as the db-class. This will of course not work with php4 But should give you an idea. Usage woulde be sth. like

$um = new Usermanager();

$user = $um->getUserById(32); 

You could also add a function setProperties($array) to your user/trainer class, which takes the array from the query and assigns the properties (if the keys and properties have the same name.

hth