Singleton Design Pattern – Usage and Example in PHP

Singleton design pattern is useful when we need a one-of-its-kind object. Only single instance of a single pattern class is possible. This kind of class is generally useful in resource handling or in other use case where we need single instance of Object. Database connection handling is one such example. Another very classic use case of singleton design pattern is for configuration option file. Global variable use can be replaced with singleton design pattern class.

I will show you the usage of singleton design pattern in configuration options. First, I will show you the old classic configuration file and its usage then I will move to Singleton design pattern based configuration file. I have merged the code of configuration file, HTML file and its application in one, so do not get confused.

Here is a small application for uploading file to server which is using normal array style configuration file. Think of line 3-6 as a config file, line 8-34 as a PHP file using config option, and rest is a HTML form.

<?php

// config file
// Without singleton class
$config['upload'] = 'C:/xampp/htdocs/uploads/';
// End config

class newClass {

	public function saveUploadedFile($file) {

		global $config;

		if (is_uploaded_file($file['upload']['tmp_name'])) {

                    if (move_uploaded_file($file['upload']['tmp_name'], $config['upload'].'/'.$file['upload']['name']))
                    {
                        echo 'File uploaded';
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        echo 'Error in upload.';
                    }
		}
	}

}


if (count($_FILES)) {
    $cls = new newClass;
    $cls->saveUploadedFile($_FILES);
}

?>

<form name="frm1" action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

    <input type="file" name="upload" value="UploadFile">

    <input type="submit" name="submit1">
    
</form>

Here is a same small application written again for using singleton design pattern. Here also, line 1-36 is a config file, line 38-68 is a PHP class using config option and rest are HTML code.

<?php
// config file
// Use of singleton class
// Singleton Design Pattern example as a config file
class configSingleton {

    private static $_instance = null;

    public $upload = 'C:/xampp/htdocs/uploads/';

    private function  __construct() {
        // empty
    }

    public static function getInstance()  {
        
        if (self::$_instance == null) {
            
            $thisClass = __CLASS__;
            self::$_instance = new $thisClass;
        }

        return self::$_instance;

    }

    // Prevent even duplicate by cloning
    // Prevent users to clone the instance
    public function __clone()
    {
        trigger_error('Clone is not allowed.', E_USER_ERROR);
    }

}

// End Config file


// Singleton Design Pattern demo
class newClass {

	public function saveUploadedFile($file) {

                // Cannot call like this as Constructor is private
                // $config = new configSingleton();

		$config = configSingleton::getInstance();
                   
		if (is_uploaded_file($file['upload']['tmp_name'])) {

                    if (move_uploaded_file($file['upload']['tmp_name'], $config->upload.'/'.$file['upload']['name']))
                    {
                        echo 'File uploaded';
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        echo 'Error in upload.';
                    }
		}
	}

}

if (count($_FILES)) {
    $cls = new newClass;
    $cls->saveUploadedFile($_FILES);
}

?>

<form name="frm1" action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

    <input type="file" name="upload">

    <input type="submit" name="submit1">

</form>

I have not split the code for few reasons: I was feeling lazy and I do not want to make this post very very long.