PHP Namespace and Include() with classes

Question

there is a project which I need to extend. All classes are in seperate files, I need to extend some of the classes without rewriting existing code in other files. My idea was to use namespaces but I fail. Here is an example:

I've renamed the original A.php class file to A_Original.php:

class A
{

    public function hello()
    {
        echo "hello world from Class A\n";
    }

}

Then created a new A.php:

namespace AOriginal {

    include 'A_Original.php';
}


namespace {

class A
{

    public function hello()
    {
        echo "hello world from Class A Extended\n";
    }

}

}

This fails because on including the original A_Original.php file the class is dumped to the global scope (thus ignoring the namespace command). I can not modify the existing code inthe A_Original.php file, but renaming is ok.

The other project files (whic I cannot modify) use a require "A.php".

How to accomplish this?

Answer 1

You can extend a class without modifying its existing behaviour:

class A {
  public function foo(){

  }
}

class MySubClassOfA extends A {
  public function bar(){

  }
}

You can add your own methods to MySubClassOfA, i.e. bar(). You can call the foo method on MySubClassOfA and it's behaviour is the same, unless you define a method called foo in MySubClassOfA.