Best Way To Autoload Classes In PHP

Question

I'm working on a project whereby I have the following file structure:

index.php
|---lib
|--|lib|type|class_name.php
|--|lib|size|example_class.php

I'd like to auto load the classes, class_name and example_class (named the same as the PHP classes), so that in index.php the classes would already be instantiated so I could do:

$class_name->getPrivateParam('name');

I've had a look on the net but can't quite find the right answer - can anyone help me out?

EDIT

Thanks for the replies. Let me expand on my scenario. I'm trying to write a WordPress plugin that can be dropped into a project and additional functionality added by dropping a class into a folder 'functionality' for example, inside the plugin. There will never be 1000 classes, at a push maybe 10?

I could write a method to iterate through the folder structure of the 'lib' folder, including every class then assigning it to a variable (of the class name), but didn't think that was a very efficient way to do it but it perhaps seems that's the best way to achieve what I need?

Answer 1

Please, if you need to autoload classes - use the namespaces and class names conventions with SPL autoload, it will save your time for refactoring. And of course, you will need to instantiate every class as an object. Thank you.

Like in this thread: PHP Autoloading in Namespaces

But if you want a complex workaround, please take a look at Symfony's autoload class: https://github.com/symfony/ClassLoader/blob/master/ClassLoader.php

Or like this (I did it in one of my projects):

<?
spl_autoload_register(function($className)
{
    $namespace=str_replace("\\","/",__NAMESPACE__);
    $className=str_replace("\\","/",$className);
    $class=CORE_PATH."/classes/".(empty($namespace)?"":$namespace."/")."{$className}.class.php";
    include_once($class);
});
?>

and then you can instantiate your class like this:

<?
$example=new NS1\NS2\ExampleClass($exampleConstructParam);
?>

and this is your class (found in /NS1/NS2/ExampleClass.class.php):

<?
namespace NS1\NS2
{
    class Symbols extends \DB\Table
    {
        public function __construct($param)
        {
            echo "hello!";
        }
    }
}
?>