PHP Class Loader

This is a simple class loader that I created for a project I was working on. It is not a full fledged class loader, but it does the job for me. I am sharing it here in case anyone else finds it useful.

e.g:

function loadClasses()
{
	$base = 'FormEditor';
	$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator(__DIR__));
	$files = [];

	foreach($iterator as $iter) {
		if($iter->isFile()) {
			$files[] = $iter->getPathname();
		}
	}

	$loaded_classes  = [];

	foreach ($files as $file) {
		if(file_exists($file)) {
			if(strpos($file, 'Classes') != false) {
				require_once($file);
			} else {
				require_once($file);
				$file = str_replace(__DIR__, '', $file);
				$file = preg_replace('/\//', '\\', $file);
				$file = str_replace('.php', '', $file);
				$loaded_classes[] = $base . $file;
			}
		}
	}

	$order = [];

	foreach($loaded_classes as $class) {
		
		if(class_exists($class)) {
			$init = new $class();

			if(property_exists($init, 'priority')) {
				$order[] = [
					'priority' => $init->priority,
					'instance' => $init
				];
			} else {
				$order[] = [
					'priority' => 0,
					'instance' => $init
				];
			}
		} 
	}

	usort($order, function($a, $b) {
		return $a['priority'] - $b['priority'];
	});

	foreach($order as $class) {
		$class['instance']->init();
	}
}

The order in which we load classes is important. If we create abstract classes then they must be loaded first. In the above example you can see that I designated a Classes folder as the source of our project's abstract classes and it is the very first to be loaded.

We define an init function in our Base.php abstract class and in our example we call the init function on all the ordered classes. So all the classes that are being loaded extend the Base class, which is also the reason we need to load it before anything else.

NOTE: the priority property is optional. If you do not define it, then the class will automatically be given a priority of 0.