PHP Optional Function Parameter Set to Reference to Existing Object - php

Question

I don't even know if this is possible but I'm trying to set an optional value to an existing object.
Here is a simplified version of the code I'm trying.
<?php
class configObject {
private $dataContainer = array();
public function set($dataKey, $dataValue) {
$this->dataContainer[$dataKey] = $dataValue;
return TRUE;
}
public function get($dataKey) {
return $this->dataContainer($dataKey);
}
$this->set('someValue', 'foobar');
} //End configObject Class
function getPaginationHTML($c = &$_config) {
$someOption = $c->get('someValue');
// Do other stuff
return $html;
}
$_config = new configObject();
$html = getPaginationHTML();
?>
I'm getting the error:
syntax error, unexpected '&' in
Any help is appreciated, again I'm not sure if it's even possible to do what I'm trying to do so sorry for being a noob.
Thanks

Answer 1

example with the decorator pattern:
class ConfigObject {
private $dataContainer = array();
public function set($dataKey, $dataValue) {
$this->dataContainer[$dataKey] = $dataValue;
return true;
}
public function get($dataKey) {
return $this->dataContainer[$dataKey];
}
}
class ConfigObjectDecorator {
private $_decorated;
public function __construct($pDecorated) {
$this->_decorated = $pDecorated;
}
public function getPaginationHTML($dataKey) {
$someOption = $this->get($dataKey);
// Do other stuff
$html = '<p>' . $someOption . '</p>';
return $html;
}
public function set($dataKey, $dataValue) {
return $this->_decorated->set($dataKey, $dataValue);
}
public function get($dataKey) {
return $this->_decorated->get($dataKey);
}
}
class ConfigFactory {
public static function create () {
$config = new ConfigObject();
return new ConfigObjectDecorator($config);
}
}
$config = ConfigFactory::create();
if ($config->set('mykey', 'myvalue'))
echo $config->getPaginationHTML('mykey');
Note that can easily rewrite ConfigFactory::create() to add a parameter to deals with other types of decoration (or none).