Skip to main content
page last edited on 25 November 2014

X-Cart classes structure and namespaces

Version: 5.4 and early

Introduction​

This article describes the structure of X-Cart classes. Also, it describes how to generate namespaces correctly.

X-Cart classes​

All X-Cart classes are located in the <X-Cart>/classes/ directory. Let us walk through each type of X-Cart classes:

  • <X-Cart>/classes/XLite.php is the class of the whole application; you will never use it in new modules;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Base/ directory contains definitions of basic X-Cart interfaces including Decorator interface that allows applying changes to every part of X-Cart store without modifying core classes;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Controller/ directory contains definitions of classes that handle requests to X-Cart (controllers). Check general X-Cart workflow article in order to learn more about controller classes;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Core/ directory contains definitions of core X-Cart entities, such as database, HTTP request, Mailer etc;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/DataSet/ directory includes the classes that defines different data structures; they are seldom used in the modules;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Logic/ folder contains the classes that describe the business logic of complex routines: order calculation, import/export, etc;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Model/ directory includes the classes that describe different X-Cart entities, such as products, orders, users, shipping and payment methods, menus etc;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Module/ folder contains files added by modules (default and 3rd party ones); if you write the module, you will put your files into this folder only; all module files (except templates) are stored in the <X-Cart>/classes/Module/<developer-ID>/<module-ID> directories;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/Upgrade/ directory contains classes that are used during upgrade procedure;
  • <X-Cart>/classes/View/ folder contains classes that manage X-Cart's output.

Generating namespaces​

Namespaces are widely used constructions in OOP languages (PHP in particular). They allow to save time and not mix up different classes with the same name.

Namespace notation in X-Cart is straight-forward: it repeats the class' sub-path of the .php file in the <X-Cart>/classes/ directory.

  • PHP class defined in the <X-Cart>/classes/XLite/Controller/Customer/Product.php file will have namespace XLite\Controller\Customer; i.e. namespace includes all names of folders after <X-Cart>/classes/ separated by backslash (****)
  • The same way, PHP class defined in the <X-Cart>/classes/XLite/View/Header.php file will have namespace XLite\View;
  • Namespace can be quite long, e.g. if the class is located in the <X-Cart>/classes/XLite/Module/CDev/AustraliaPost/Model/Shipping/Processor/AustraliaPost.php file, then its namespace will be XLite\Module\CDev\AustraliaPost\Model\Shipping\Processor;
  • PHP class defined in the <X-Cart>/classes/XLite.php file will have no namespace.

Important note: if you have PHP class MyClass, it must be placed into the MyClass.php file. Name of the class must be the same as the name of the .php file it contains.