multiple instances of a class in wordpress plugin

I’m cross-posting this from the wordpress section, b/c I think the problem lies more in my lack of understanding of OOP, so maybe it should’ve been posted here in the first place.

In writing wordpress plugins I wanted to created a class that I could use in every plugin to take care of the mundane creation of a plugin options page: so add menu page, white list settings, spit out and validate options, etc. I thought basically, I wanted to re-use something I must need to write a class.

at its most base, i was expecting that i could say new KIA_Plugin_Options($args) in both plugins one and two (with different $args) and that each would crank out the options pages for their respective plugins. however, i have added the following class in 2 plugins and instead of creating the menus for each it only handles 1 and then dies. so parts of it work, but isn’t the re-usable panacea I was going for yet, so i feel like i am missing some important concept in OOP.

here’s the skeleton of my options class:

<?php

class KIA_Plugin_Options {

  private $page_title;
  private $menu_title;
  private $capability;
  private $menu_slug;
  private $setting_name;
  private $option_name;

  function KIA_Plugin_Options( $args ){

    //convert $args to array 
    if(!is_array($args)) $args['page_title'] = $args; 

    if(!isset($args['page_title'])) die (__('Plugin Options needs at least the plugin's page title parameter.','kia_plugin_options'));

    // Define the class variables
    $this->page_title = $args['page_title']; 
    $this->menu_title = isset($args['menu_title']) ? $args['menu_title'] : $this->page_title;
    $this->capability = isset($args['capability']) ? $args['capability'] : 'manage_options';
    $this->menu_slug = isset($args['menu_slug']) ? $args['menu_slug'] : sanitize_title_with_dashes($this->menu_title);
    $this->setting_name = isset($args['setting_name']) ? $args['setting_name'] : $this->menu_slug;
    $this->option_name = isset($args['option_name']) ? $args['option_name'] : $this->menu_slug;

    // Set-up Action and Filter Hooks
    register_activation_hook(__FILE__, array(&$this,'add_defaults_options'));
    register_uninstall_hook(__FILE__, array(&$this,'delete_plugin_options'));

    //add settings page
    add_action('admin_init', array(&$this,'register_settings' ));
    add_action('admin_menu', array(&$this,'add_options_page'));

    //add settings link to plugins page
    add_filter( 'plugin_action_links', array(&$this,'add_action_links'), 10, 2 );
  }


  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  // CALLBACK FUNCTION FOR: register_activation_hook(__FILE__, 'add_defaults_options')
  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  // Define default option settings
  function add_defaults_options() {
    if(get_option('kia_tell_a_friend_options')) return false;

    $defaults = array( 
              "emailsubject" => __( 'I saw this and thought of you!', 'kia_tell_a_friend'),
              "emailmsg" => __( 'I just saw this!', 'kia_tell_a_friend'),
              "twittermsg" => __( 'Check this out!', 'kia_tell_a_friend')
    );
    update_option('kia_tell_a_friend_options', $defaults);
  }


  // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  // CALLBACK FUNCTION FOR: register_uninstall_hook(__FILE__, 'delete_plugin_options')
  // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  // Delete options table entries ONLY when plugin deactivated AND deleted
  function delete_plugin_options() {
    $options = get_option('kia_tell_a_friend_options', true);
    if(isset($options['delete'])) delete_option('kia_tell_a_friend_options');
  }


  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  // CALLBACK FUNCTION FOR: add_action('admin_init', array(&$this,'register_settings' ));
  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  // Init plugin options to white list our options
  function register_settings(){ 
    register_setting( $this->setting_name, $this->option_name, array(&$this,'validate_options') );
  }

  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  // CALLBACK FUNCTION FOR: add_action('admin_menu', array(&$this,'add_options_page'));
  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  // Add menu page
  function add_options_page() {
     $page = add_options_page( $this->page_title , $this->menu_title, $this->capability, $this->menu_slug, array(&$this,'render_form'));

    /* Using registered $page handle to hook stylesheet loading */
    add_action( 'admin_print_styles-' . $page, array(&$this,'admin_style' ));
  }

  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  // CALLBACK FUNCTION FOR: add_action( 'admin_print_styles-' . $page, array(&$this,'admin_styles' ));
  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  // Add menu page styles
  function admin_style() {
    wp_enqueue_style('plugin-options',plugins_url('css/options-framework.css', __FILE__));
  }


  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  // CALLBACK FUNCTION SPECIFIED IN: add_options_page()
  // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  // Render the Plugin options form
  function render_form() {
    echo "Bacon!!!";
  }

  // Sanitize and validate input. Accepts an array, return a sanitized array.
  function validate_options($input) {

    $clean = array();

     // strip html from textboxes
    $clean['pubid'] =  wp_filter_nohtml_kses($input['pubid']); // Sanitize text input (strip html tags, and escape characters)
    $clean['delete'] =  isset( $input['delete'] ) ? 'true' : 'false' ;  //checkbox

    $clean['emailsubject'] =  wp_filter_nohtml_kses($input['emailsubject']); // Sanitize text input (strip html tags, and escape characters)
    $clean['emailmsg'] =  wp_filter_post_kses($input['emailmsg']); // Sanitize textbox input (allow tags that area allowed in posts)

    $clean['twittermsg'] =  wp_filter_nohtml_kses($input['twittermsg']); // Sanitize text input (strip html tags, and escape characters)

    return $clean;
  }

  // Display a Settings link on the main Plugins page
  function add_action_links( $links, $file ) {

    if ( $file == plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ) {
      $posk_links = '<a href="'.admin_url('options-general.php?page=tell-a-friend').'">'.__('Settings', 'kia_tell_a_friend').'</a>';
      // make the 'Settings' link appear first
      array_unshift( $links, $posk_links );
    }

    return $links;
  }


}

then in my first plugin i am calling (on the init hook)

$args = array ( 'page_title' => 'apple options page',
                        'menu_title' => 'apple options', 
                        'capability' => 'manage_options',
                        'menu_slug' => 'apple_options',
                        'setting_name' => 'apple_settings',
                        'option_name' => 'apple_db_options' );

    $this->options = new KIA_Plugin_Options( $args );

and on the second plugin

$args = array ( 'page_title' => 'bacon options page',
                    'menu_title' => 'bacon options', 
                    'capability' => 'manage_options',
                    'menu_slug' => 'bacon_options',
                    'setting_name' => 'bacon_settings',
                    'option_name' => 'bacon_db_options' );

$this->options = new KIA_Plugin_Options( $args );

both the plugins are contained in their own, respective classes. i can post one of the dummies if that’ll help, but it was getting to be a lot of code.