Posted by Jim on 04/20/07 12:39

Hi guys,

I have an object which represents an "item" in a CMS "component" where
an "item" in the most basic form just a field, and a "component" is
effectively a table.

"item" objects can be created and then added to "component" objects to
build up the component definition.

My dilemma comes in deciding how to read/write data to the "item"
object.

I figure I can either:

1. Use getters and setters (hate the idea of them though)
2. Use __get and __set which I prefer the idea of from a user
interface point of view though I understand they take no notice of
member visibility.
3. Pass all the required parameters to one function and do all the
validation there - inflexible, unintuitive and more work in the long
run in my opinion.

I'm leaning towards the __get and __set route so I could do:

$item = new Item('user');

// could throw exceptions in the functions that do validation
$item->required = true;
$item->label = 'User';
$item->description = 'A description of the item';

// all validation on the item is done so just add it
$component->add_item($item);


Does this make sense? I'm interested in hearing what other methods
people would choose and why.

Thanks for any input.

Jimmy.

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