What is an Interface

[MUSIC] 0:00 If you have a drivers license, you've probably driven more than one car. 0:04 You don't have to relearn to drive every time you drive a new car, 0:09 because each car uses the same interface. 0:13 There's the way to accelerate break, turn and shift gears. 0:16 Each car may handle a little differently, and 0:20 you'll feel more comfortable with certain vehicles, and it's the same way with code. 0:22 If you're familiar with one logging system and switch to another logging system with 0:27 the same interface, the transition should be fairly easy. 0:31 Although you may feel more comfortable working with the system that you find most 0:36 familiar. 0:41 Hi, I'm Alina and in this course, we're going to look at an important concept, 0:42 an object-oriented design called interfaces. 0:47 An interface is a type of contract 0:50 that assures certain abilities are available on a particular object class. 0:53 Interfaces have continued to gain popularity in PHP. 0:58 As the use of package management through composer has become the standard. 1:02 By having standard interfaces, package maintainers can more easily build and 1:07 maintain packages for common tasks, such as logging, caching, and HTTP messages. 1:13 The PHP Framework Interop Group, or PHP FIG for short, 1:19 has also been a leader in standardizing common interfaces. 1:23 Check out the notes associated with this video to learn more about composer, 1:27 standards, and the fig. 1:32 So how do interfaces fit with class hierarchy? 1:34 Lets talk tomatoes. 1:37 Botanically speaking, a fruit is a seed baring structure 1:39 that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant. 1:43 Where as vegetables are all other plant parts such as, roots, leaves, and stems. 1:46 By those standards, tomatoes are a fruit. 1:53 In culinary terms, however, it's a different matter. 1:56 When cooking, many foods, 2:00 such as tomatoes, which botanically speaking are fruits, 2:02 are typically considered vegetables because they are savory rather than sweet. 2:06 If a tomato were a PHP class, it would inherit it's properties from the fruit 2:12 class, but it implements the savoryFlavor interface of a vegetable. 2:18 Allowing us to use these fruits in recipes that require a savory flavor. 2:23 In this course, we'll explore interfaces and 2:29 abstract classes by building a website that displays different types of content. 2:32 Using pages and blog posts, we'll explore the use of interfaces through 2:40 the creation of these different types of content. 2:45 We'll also pull that content from different data sources. 2:48 The project will combine interface contracts with class hierarchy by creating 2:53 an abstract class and demonstrate how abstract classes can be used 2:58 to enforce the contract of an interface while building a class hierarchy. 3:03 This course will explain the differences between interfaces and 3:09 abstract classes, and give you the knowledge you need to build, and 3:12 implement both in your own projects. 3:16