Method Chaining in CodeIgniter Library - php

Question

I've been working on a script for work. It's to use Slack with PHP. At work we use CodeIgniter (sad face) so I have to accommodate and I decided to write my script as a Library.
There isn't an issue here in that the code doesn't work, as it works fine, but I am just interested to know how I can apply method chaining when calling the library so myself and my colleagues can code cleaner when we use the library.
Here's the Library I wrote - I'm more of a programmer in-training so my OOP knowledge is limited.
<?php defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
include('../vendor/autoload.php');
use GuzzleHttp\Client;
class Slack {
protected $ci;
private $channel;
private $endpoint;
private $icon;
private $username;
public function __construct()
{
$this->ci =& get_instance();
$this->ci->config->load('slack');
$this->baseUri = $this->ci->config->item('base_uri');
$this->channel = $this->ci->config->item('channel');
$this->endpoint = $this->ci->config->item('endpoint');
$this->icon = $this->ci->config->item('icon');
$this->username = $this->ci->config->item('username');
$this->client = new Client([
'base_uri' => $this->baseUri
]);
}
public function getChannel()
{
return $this->channel;
}
public function setChannel($channel)
{
$this->channel = $channel;
return $this;
}
public function getEndpoint()
{
return $this->endpoint;
}
public function setEndpoint($endpoint)
{
$this->endpoint = $endpoint;
return $this;
}
public function getIcon()
{
return $this->icon;
}
public function setIcon($icon)
{
(mb_substr($icon, 0, 1) == ':')
? $this->iconType = 'icon_emoji'
: $this->iconType = 'icon_url';
$this->icon = $icon;
return $this;
}
public function getIconType()
{
return ($this->iconType) ? $this->iconType : 'icon_emoji';
}
public function getUsername()
{
return $this->username;
}
public function setUsername($username)
{
$this->username = $username;
return $this;
}
public function to($channel)
{
$this->setChannel($channel);
return $channel;
}
public function from($username)
{
$this->setUsername($username);
return $username;
}
public function icon($icon)
{
$this->setIcon($icon);
return $icon;
}
public function payload($text)
{
$payload = [
'channel' => $this->getChannel(),
$this->getIconType() => $this->getIcon(),
'link_names' => 1,
'text' => $text,
'username' => $this->getUsername(),
];
return $payload;
}
public function send($text)
{
$payload = json_encode($this->payload($text));
$this->client->post($this->getEndpoint(), [
'body' => $payload
]);
return $this;
}
}
Now I'm using this in our API, which is coded in a Controller, and this is how I am calling the methods:
<?php
// ...
$this->load->library('slack');
$this->slack->icon(':hotdog:');
$this->slack->send('Hello...');
As I said, this works fine...
I wanted though, to be able to do method chaining, like so:
<?php
// ...
$this->slack->icon(':hotdog:')->send('Hello...');
Can you tell me if this is possible and how to achieve it?
Thank you.

Answer 1

As i can see to archive what you want you just need to change that
public function icon($icon)
{
$this->setIcon($icon);
return $icon;
}
to that
public function icon($icon)
{
$this->setIcon($icon);
return $this;
}
and then you will be able to do what you want
$this->slack->icon(':hotdog:')->send('Hello...');
Anyway your icon method no need to return $icon you already have getIcon method
also your send method calling payload method before make request so that should work