[-comm-devel] Using phpWS' object orientation

[George B. <gbr...@lu...>]

I'm thinking of creating some new modules for phpWS to provide features that
schools need, and it seems to me that the work would be much facilitated by
extending existing phpWS classes.  I've done that before using the core item
and manager classes, but would like also to consider extending classes
defined in modules.  For example, why not use the editing environment of
PageMaster's PHPWS_Section class to store and edit mini news stories for a
student newspaper module?

I'm not clear, however, on how to make this work.  Is it sufficient to
require the mod/pagemaster/class/Section.php file and then to call the class
functions, e.g., the constructor:

    $newsection = new PHPWS_Section::PHPWS_Section();

Is any other initialization required?  Seems to me the appropriate tables
had to have been installed in the database, for example, which is a boost
process from installing pagemaster.  I guess also one must check to see if
the Section.php file exists.  Is there some standard check to see if
required modules are available?  I seem to remember something like that from
'way back, but I've never used it.  How does this work now?

Any help appreciated!

George
______________________________________
George Brackett, Principal
George Brackett Associates
617 413 4316 / gbr...@lu...
http://www.luceatlux.com/gba/