Class not found even though it is located where I am looking for it

Question

I am trying to load a class in order for a PHP script that I wrote, with help of the classes' documentation, to work.

Since my server is running PHP 5.3, the documentation recommended loading the class like this:

spl_autoload_register(function($class){
    if (file_exists('/webgit/webroot/home/myUsername/www/elastica/lib/' . $class . '.php')) {
       echo " found \n ";
       require_once('/webgit/webroot/home/myUsername/www/elastica/lib/' . $class . '.php');
    }
    else {
       echo " not found! ";
    }
});

The only things that are different are that I included echo's in the suite of the if and else. Also myUsername is actually my username in the file-system path on the server.

Then, it ( the documentation ) suggests that I make a new instance of the class like so:

$elasticaClient = new \Elastica\Client();

However, I am getting an error that the class is not found. Here is exactly what is printed including the error and the suite of my if-else:

not found! Fatal error: Class 'Elastica\Client' not found in /webgit/webroot/home/myUsername/www/elastica/index.php on line 17

line 17 is the line where I try to make an instance of the class.

now, index.php is where the above code is and it is located, on my server, in /webgit/webroot/home/myUsername/www/elastica/

and all the class files are in /webgit/webroot/home/myUsername/www/elastica/lib/

so, I don't understand why it is not able to find / load the class.

I would greatly appreciate any help in solving this!

Answer 1

not found! - it's mean that the file was not found. File, not class.

Variable $class contains full class name with namespaces Elastica\Client. Are you sure that you have /webgit/webroot/home/myUsername/www/elastica/lib/Elastica\Client.php file?

Check How do I use PHP namespaces with autoload? and learn about PSR-0.

Answer 2

Redacted due to excessive wrongness. Mike has a link in the comments worth preserving, however.