Creating an instance of Expression Engine 2 plugin class from template

Question

I have created an EE2 plugin under third_party folder and it succesfully shows up in Plugins list @ backend.

Now, is it possible to create an instance of that plugin class directly from a template as I don't need any template tag behaviour? Eg.

<?php
$cart = new Cart;
?>

Where as the plugin would have the following structure:

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

$plugin_info = array();

/**
 * Cart Class
 * ...
 */

class Cart {

    var $return_data;
    function Cart() {
    }

    ...

}
?>

OR, is there a better way in achieving this preserving the possibility to use tags later on? Thanks!

Answer 1

It is generally bad practice to have php in your template. It isn't recommended by Ellis Lab and is not a good idea to even allow php in your templates in template preferences.

I hope this helps:

Here is my plugin starter kit. I hope this helps this will give you a plugin set up in a way that is able to be expanded on to add more functions and such.... to use the public construct it would be {exp:pluginname} if you added a function it would be {exp:pluginname:function} You will want to save this as pi.pluginname.php in a pluginname folder in the third-party folder.

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

/**
 * Pluginname Class

 * @package         ExpressionEngine
 * @category        Plugin
 * @author          Matthew Johnson
 * @copyright       Copyright (c) 2010, Jane Doe
 * @link            http://midwesterninteractive.com/
 */

$plugin_info = array(
    'pi_name'         => 'Pluginname',
    'pi_version'      => '1.0',
    'pi_author'       => 'Matthew Johnson',
    'pi_author_url'   => 'http://MidwesternInteractive.com/',
    'pi_description'  => 'Allows you to generate 1 of 13. ',
    'pi_usage'        => PluginName::usage()
);

class Pluginname
{

    public $return_data = "";

    // --------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Pluginname
     *
     * Plugin Description
     *
     * @access  public
     * @return  string
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->EE =& get_instance();   

    }

    // --------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Usage
     *
     * This function describes how the plugin is used.
     *
     * @access  public
     * @return  string
     */
    public static function usage()
    {
        ob_start();  ?>

        @mattsidjohn
        @buildmidwestern
        http://midwesterninteractive.com


    <?php
        $buffer = ob_get_contents();
        ob_end_clean();

        return $buffer;
    }
    // END
}
/* End of file pi.pluginname.php */