How to autoload a singleton class (private constructor) in zend controller?

Question

I have a singleton class in my models directory and I have to use its function in Controller class. Doing it by require_once('file path'); and calling function as ClassName::FunctionName() works fine, but I need to use Zend Autoloader instead of including class through require_once. I came across number of solutions here on stackoverflow which used bootstrap.php in terms of adding following code there and it seems like doing the same as require_once('file path'); did in controller

  protected function _initAutoload()
    {   
       Zend_Loader_Autoloader::getInstance();
    }

Going this way I get Fatal error: Class 'ClassName' not found in {path}\controllers\SampleController.php on {line no.} I am sure I am missing something but cant figure out what exactly.

Answer 1

Like user1145086 has rightly said, if you follow the naming convention of Zend, you class should be auto-loaded.

If you have a class, say AutoloadedClass, and you want it auto-loaded, you can do the following:

1. Create a folder in your /library folder and name it 'My'.

2. Write the following code in your Bootstrap's initAutoload class method:

   Zend_Loader_Autoloader::getInstance()->registerNamespace(array('My_'));
   

3. Place the file containing the 'AutoloadedClass' in the 'My' folder you just created and rename the file to AutoloadedClass.php so the file is eventually located thus: /library/My/AutoloadedClass.php
4. Lastly, rename the class itself to My_AutoloadedClass as Zend's naming convention requires. You can henceforth get a reference to your class using that class name My_AutoloadedClass from anywhere in your application.

Answer 2

If class names and locations in your library do not follow Zend naming conventions, then you can write an autoloader for that library and push this autoloader onto the Zend_Loader_Autoloader stack.

See https://stackoverflow.com/a/8820536/131824 for an example.

Answer 3

if you name your class according to zend conventions, the class should autoload without problem. If your class is located at /application/models/myClass.php and is named :

class Application_Model_MyClass {

    public function myMethod(){
    }
}

it should autoload just fine, I don't think the fact that is a singleton would affect autoloading.

If you need to use your own class names you can add a new namespace to the autoloader the works in the /library directory, add this line to your application.ini :

autoloaderNamespaces[] = "MyNamespace_"

then add the /MyNamespace directory to the /library directory and name your files accordingly:

class MyNamespace_MyClass {
}

Hope this helps.