Why does my class constructor feels bloat and faulty? - php

Question

I'm fairly new to OOP and I'm struggling with setting up my classes. I'm working on a project where I have the following classes: dogTag, dog, user.
This is my current dogTagclass:
class DogTag
{
const POST_TYPE = 'dog-tag';
private ?int $id = null;
private string $number;
private ?Dog $dog;
private ?User $user;
private bool $isActive = false;
private bool $isLost = false;
private string $generationDate;
private ?string $activationDate;
private string $productionStatus;
public function __construct($id = null, string $number, ?Dog $dog = null, ?User $user = null, bool $isActive, bool $isLost, string $generationDate, ?string $activationDate, string $productionStatus)
{
$this->id = $id;
$this->number = $number;
$this->dog = $dog;
$this->user = $user;
$this->isActive = $isActive;
$this->isLost = $isLost;
$this->generationDate = $generationDate;
$this->activationDate = $activationDate;
$this->productionStatus = $productionStatus;
}
Let me explain the functionality of the dog tag. Dog Tags are being generated by a generator and stored into the database. So a dog tag only needs the following arguments when being generated: number (this is a unique generated number and not a unique database ID), isActive, isLost (could be optional), generationDate, productionStatus. All other arguments are not necessarily needed for the generation.
So my first question is: "Do I need to set the optional arguments in the contructor?".
Let me explain why I did this for the moment. When a user receives the unique dog tag number they can activate the dog tag. Therefor I use a method called activateDogTag. For a dog tag to be activated it needs to be attached to a user. Therefor I use the $user argument in the constructor.
Here comes my second question: "Should I use a method setUser(User $user) where I inject the user object into the dogtag class?".
Another problem that I'm struggling with is that I also use an id argument. This will be a bit harder to explain why I'm using this and why it feels wrong.
I'm also using the dogTag class to I can instantiate it with all the data from the database. For the moment I have a static DogTag::get($id) method. This class grabs the data from the database by the ID an instantiates a new DogTag class where I fill all the arguments with the data received from the database.
For information: I'm using WordPress)
public static function get($postId): ?DogTag
{
$post = get_post($postId);
if (empty($post)) {
return null;
}
$dogTagId = $post->ID;
$generationDate = $post->post_date;
$dogTagNumber = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'dog_tag_number', true);
$dogId = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'dog_id', true);
if (empty($dogId)) {
$dog = null;
} else {
$dog = Dog::get($dogId);
}
$userId = $post->post_author;
$user = $userId ? User::get($userId) : null;
$isActive = get_post_meta($dogTagId, 'dog_tag_is_active', true);
$isLost = get_post_meta($dogTagId, 'dog_tag_is_lost', true);
$activationDate = get_post_meta($dogTagId, 'dog_tag_activation_date', true);
$productionStatus = get_post_meta($dogTagId, 'dog_tag_production_status', true);
$dogTag = new self($dogTagId, $dogTagNumber, $dog, $user, $isActive, $isLost,
$generationDate, $activationDate, $productionStatus);
$dogTag->post = get_post($postId);
return $dogTag;
}
This way all the arguments are filled and are available within the class.
So where am I going wrong and what I'm I doing correct? The problem is that I can't really find any solution in my online courses for these problems as they don't go this deep.
Where I'm also struggling is eg with the static activation class (DogTag::activateDogTag):
public static function activateDogTag()
{
// Here goes the form
$dogTag = self::getDogTagByDogTagNumber('4OV9NHOPXLAB6X9B');
// $dogTag = self::getDogTagByDogTagNumber('VBD6JZODTZ6L4YU7');
if (!$dogTag) {
var_dump('no dog tag with this ID found');
}
if(true == $dogTag->getIsActive()) {
var_dump('Dog Tag is already active');
}
if ($dogTag->getUser()) {
var_dump('user is set');
return;
}
var_dump('Activate');
$userId = get_current_user_id();
if (0 === $userId) {
var_dump('not logged in as a user');
}
$dogTag->setIsActive(true);
$dogTag->setUser($userId);
$user = $dogTag->getUser();
var_dump($dogTag);
// Update dog Tag
$args = [
'post_type' => 'dog-tag',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_title' => $dogTag->getNumber(),
'post_date' => $dogTag->generationDate,
'post_author' => $dogTag->getUser()->getId(),
'meta_input' => [
'dog_tag_number' => $dogTag->getNumber(),
'dog_tag_is_active' => $dogTag->getIsActive(),
'dog_tag_is_lost' => $dogTag->getIsLost(),
'dog_tag_production_status' => $dogTag->getProductionStatus(),
]
];
var_dump($args);
$postId = wp_update_post($args);
$dogTag->setId($postId);
return $dogTag;
}
Is this a good practice:
$dogTag->setIsActive(true);
$dogTag->setUser($userId);
$user = $dogTag->getUser();
and after the data is stored into the database via wp_update_post by setting the id property via DogTag->setId($postId)?

Answer 1

First of all, if it works then you are not doing anything wrong.
Question 1
It's usually better practice to start with required parameters, followed by optional parameters, if it feels too bloated you could remove all optional parameters from the constructor and create setters for those.
ID/Fetching
What you have here is fine, you could create another class DogTagFactory/DogTagRepository which handles the creation/database process for you if you and reduce bloat.
Overall try not to get too stuck in the chase of "perfect" best practice, it's always going to depend on the situation and usually in the end it does not even matter all that much.