Here's something I keep struggling to figure out the best solution to. I've had this problem while working with PHP and Java so it's a fundamental understanding of OOP issue. Examples are in PHP.
Let's say I have a few object's here. Song, Artist, ArtistProfile, User.
So in some instances I want the ArtistProfile and an array of User objects (subscribers) when I call the Artist (e.g. the artist's profile page), in other instances I only want the Artist info, like when viewing a page of the song.
Should I be nesting one object as part of another or should I be creating more specific objects for different usages.
Option 1: Nested
Class Song {
private $songId;
private $songName;
private $year;
private $Artist; //Artist object
}
Class Artist {
private $artistId;
private $name;
private $age;
private $subscriberArr; //Array of User objects which then have more nested objects such as a Role object, Profile object
private $profile; //Profile object which could also have more nested objects
}
Class User {
private $userId;
private $name;
private $age;
private $role; //Role object
private $profile; //UserProfile object
}
Option 2: Build more objects
Class Song {
private $songId;
private $songName;
private $year;
private $artistId;
}
Class Artist {
private $artistId;
private $age;
private $name;
}
Class User {
private $userId;
private $name;
private $age;
private $roleId;
}
Class SongWithArtist {
private $song; //Basic Song object
private $artist; //Basic Artist object
}
Class ArtistWithProfile {
private $artist; //Basic artist object
private $profile; //Profile object
private $subscriberArr; //UserDisplay object containing basic User object
}
Class UserWithProfile {}
Option 1 means wasting a lot of time/resources grabbing information I may not need for that page but easier to manage. Option 2 is messy and requires keeping track of which object is what but faster and far less db calls. Which is the 'correct' option and/or is there a 3rd correct option?
