How to Highlight PHP Method Calls in Sublime Text (textmate) - php

Question

I am using Sublime Text 3 as a PHP editor, I've been customizing the PHP.tmLanguage file to include more syntax scopes, right now I cannot figure out how to capture class method invocations.
$html = new HTML("hr");
$html->output_ml("moo");
output_ml is currently declared as scope variable.other.property.php
I would like to add a scope to pertain to specifically to class method calls, but I am having trouble defining the regex in the tmLanguage file.
I've tried
<dict>
<key>match</key>
<string>(?i)\$[a-z_][a-z0-9_]*->([a-z_][a-z_0-9]*)\s*\(</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>meta.method-call.php</string>
</dict>

Answer 1

You were pretty close, I just tweaked a few things:
(?i:(?!\$[a-z_][a-z0-9_]*->)([a-z_][a-z_0-9]*)\s*\()
First thing I did was wrap the entire expression in the "case-insensitive" modifier, just so nothing got missed. Probably not necessary, but whatever. Second, and more importantly, I took your first group that was outside of parentheses, and made them a negative lookahead. This way, they match the class name and the arrow, but don't report it - basically saying "match whatever is ahead of us as long as we exist in front of it, but don't match us."
Now, you'll have a scope that matches just the method's name.
Demo
Now, here's what I don't get - why you should have to do this. I maintain both a language syntax and a color scheme, so I have a lot of experience with scoping in Sublime Text and TextMate. And to my knowledge, the PHP .tmLanguage already includes scopes for function calls. I'm not a PHP expert by any means, but I know the basics, so I made three examples of different PHP function calls:
Green highlights a large variety of function calls in different languages. In the top example, baz_quux is scoped as meta.function-call.object.php, in the middle example it's meta.function-call.static.php, and in the bottom it's just meta.function-call.php. I don't understand where you're getting variable.other.property.php from.
However, if I take away the parentheses after the function calls above:
I get the following scopes, from top down: variable.other.property.php (aha!), constant.other.class.php, and constant.other.php. If I put the parens back, and add a space or three after the end of the function name, they are still highlighted as functions, in green.
So, while we had some fun with regexes today, ultimately your work has already been done for you. If you're going to be doing more scope-hunting, I highly recommend the ScopeAlways plugin, which, like its name implies, always lists the full scope of the current cursor position in the bottom bar (you can turn it off via the Command Palette if you want). If I get a request to expand my color scheme's highlighting to a new language, I just open up as much code as I can find and poke around with my mouse, looking at the different scopes, then editing my theme to correct colors as needed, or add new ones for brand-new scopes. I then scan through the .tmLanguage file (after converting it to YAML) and see if I missed anything.
Good luck with your work!