Object Cloning Vs Serialization - php

My goal is to restart InnoDB transaction the right way if Deadlock found, and sometimes, data in an object changes upon execution and I need to roll it back to its former state. For that I might use Object Cloning, but I'm not %100 sure about it, because these objects have no __clone() methods defined and I have no time to add them. From the other side, it's very rare these Objects have composed Objects inside.
Here is my code:
protected function callAction() {
$action = $this->Method.'Action';
// Storing an Object
$SavedPackageObject = clone $this->PackageObject;
try {
// First attempt
$res = $this->PackageObject->$action();
} catch(MySQLiDeadlockException $e) {
$i = 0;
do {
// Restoring an Object
$this->PackageObject = clone $SavedPackageObject;
try {
$res = $this->PackageObject->$action();
// Success
break;
} catch(MySQLiDeadlockException $e) {
// Cancel iterations if limit is reached
if($i > 9)
throw $e;
usleep(100000);
$i++;
}
} while(1);
}
return $res;
}
There's another approach on Object copying which is Deep Cloning:
unserialize(serialize($Object));
I also thinking of adding __clone() to parent class of all of these package Objects:
// php.net example
function __clone(){
foreach($this as $name => $value){
if(gettype($value)=='object'){
$this->$name= clone($this->$name);
}
}
}
Question: Is it okay to use clone and define __clone() in parent or I could just serialize/unserialize?

For what you're doing, clone makes the most sense and should be the most efficient. I can't think of any benefit of serializing your object to a string, just to unserialize it to regain it's state.
I'd assume that if you had to override _clone, you'd have to override _sleep and __wakeup (depending on your object) if serializing?

Related

Calling methods on object gets 'call to member function on array' error

I inherited this project from my predecessor, and he was way overqualified. A lot of stuff he wrote goes over my head. But as far as vanilla php goes, I'm pretty confident, and can't for the life of me figure out why the application thinks the object I created is an array. Maybe I don't actually know anything. You tell me.
use via\zoom\Bulletin;
use via\zoom\DatabaseConnection;
require_once('includes/config.php');
require_once(CORE .'sql.php');
require_once(CORE . 'model.php');
require_once(CORE . 'bulletin.php');
// If we've passed the validation step we can guarantee we have a valid $active_user
validate();
//run if a page deletion has been requested
if (isset($_GET['delpage'])) {
$del = $_GET['delpage'];
$bulletin = new Bulletin;
$bulletin = Bulletin::get($del);
if(!empty($bulletin))
{
$bulletin->delete();
/*
So.
For some reason, the above object is cast as an array.
If you try to cast it as an object, it defaults to stdClass.
On the left we have a method complaining that it can't work outside of its class. Hard stop, array to method exception.
On the right we have an object with all the right data, but set to the wrong class, so it can't find the delete method at all. Hard stop, undefined method exception.
*/
//this is the workaround, pulled the script straight from the delete method in the model class
/*$dbh = DatabaseConnection::get();
$query_string = "DELETE FROM brochure_generator_bulletin WHERE id = $del";
try {
$dbh->query($query_string);
//return true;
} catch (\Exception $e) {
//return false;
}*/
}
header('Location: bulletins');
exit();
}
Here's the get method from the Bulletin class, extends Model--
public static function get( ...$ids )
{
$matches = parent::get( ...$ids );
foreach( $matches as &$match )
{
$match->content = json_decode( $match->content );
}
return $matches;
}
And here's the delete method from the Model Class:
public function delete()
{
if (isset($this->id)) {
$dbh = DatabaseConnection::get();
$query_string = "DELETE FROM {$this->table_name} WHERE id = \"{$this->id}\"";
try {
$dbh->query($query_string);
return true;
} catch (\Exception $e) {
return false;
}
}
return false;
}
What am I missing? Is he using a framework I'm not familiar with? I'm utterly grasping at straws here, and at this point my options are grab all the method scripts and stick them where they need to be inline, or just starting over from the ground up.
You don't need to create a new Bulletin object before using the static get() method, so you can remove this:
$bulletin = new Bulletin;
That $bulletin variable is immediately overwritten by the next line anyway.
$bulletin = Bulletin::get($del);
get() takes one or more ids and returns an array of one or more corresponding objects. You're giving it one id and expecting one object back, but it's still going to return that object inside an array. You just need to get the object out of the array so you can call its delete method.
if(!empty($bulletin))
{
$bulletin = reset($bulletin); // get the first item in the array
$bulletin->delete();
You could also review the model and see if it has a different method that returns a single object rather than an array of objects.

Encoding clone $this in JsonSerializable

This simplified case is resulting in a PHP segfault (exit 127):
class Datum implements \JsonSerializable{
public function jsonSerialize(){
return clone $this;
}
}
echo json_encode(new Datum);
The last line of code results in exit(127). I'm unable to retrieve any stack in my current environment.
Meanwhile, removing the clone token works.
Is there any possible explanation why this is happening?
This code results in an infinite recursion.
It appears that the PHP JSON module supports JsonSerializable in this manner (pseudocode):
function json_encode($data){
if($data instanceof JsonSerializable) return json_encode($data->jsonSerialize());
else real_json_encode($data); // handling primitive data or arrays or pure data objects
}
If you return yet another instance of JsonSerializable, json_encode is going to try to serialize it again, resulting in an infinite recursion.
This is working for return $this;, however, probably due to intentional workaround from json_encode's implementation where it goes straight to real json_encode when the returned object is identical, i.e. when $this is returned. However this is not happening for cloned objects since $a !== clone $a.
References
This answer can be supported by reference from the php-src.
// in php_json_encode_zval
if (instanceof_function(Z_OBJCE_P(val), php_json_serializable_ce)) {
return php_json_encode_serializable_object(buf, val, options, encoder);
}
// in php_json_encode_serializable_object
if ((Z_TYPE(retval) == IS_OBJECT) &&
(Z_OBJ(retval) == Z_OBJ_P(val))) {
/* Handle the case where jsonSerialize does: return $this; by going straight to encode array */
PHP_JSON_HASH_APPLY_PROTECTION_DEC(myht);
return_code = php_json_encode_array(buf, &retval, options, encoder);
} else {
/* All other types, encode as normal */
return_code = php_json_encode_zval(buf, &retval, options, encoder);
PHP_JSON_HASH_APPLY_PROTECTION_DEC(myht);
}
These snippets prove that PHP would encode return $this; as an array (or as a non-serializable object), while returning anything else makes Z_OBJ(retval) == Z_OBJ_P(val) false, going to the else block which recursively calls php_json_encode_zval again.
TL;DR, Simple solution: return (array) $this; instead of clone $this;.

Fast check if an object will be successfully instantiated in PHP?

How can I check if an object will be successfully instantiated with the given argument, without actually creating the instance?
Actually I'm only checking (didn't tested this code, but should work fine...) the number of required parameters, ignoring types:
// Filter definition and arguments as per configuration
$filter = $container->getDefinition($serviceId);
$args = $activeFilters[$filterName];
// Check number of required arguments vs arguments in config
$constructor = $reflector->getConstructor();
$numRequired = $constructor->getNumberOfRequiredParameters();
$numSpecified = is_array($args) ? count($args) : 1;
if($numRequired < $numSpecified) {
throw new InvalidFilterDefinitionException(
$serviceId,
$numRequired,
$numSpecified
);
}
EDIT: $constructor can be null...
The short answer is that you simply cannot determine if a set of arguments will allow error-free instantiation of a constructor. As commenters have mentioned above, there's no way to know for sure if a class can be instantiated with a given argument list because there are runtime considerations that cannot be known without actually attempting
instantiation.
However, there is value in trying to instantiate a class from a list of constructor arguments. The most obvious use-case for this sort of operation is a configurable Dependency Injection Container (DIC). Unfortunately, this is a much more complicated operation than the OP suggests.
We need to determine for each argument in a supplied definition array whether or not it matches specified type-hints from the constructor method signature (if the method signature actually has type-hints). Also, we need to resolve how to treat default argument values. Additionally, for our code to be of any real use we need to allow the specification of "definitions" ahead of time for instantiating a class. A sophisticated treatment of the problem will also involve a pool of reflection objects (caching) to minimize the performance impact of repeatedly reflecting things.
Another hurdle is the fact that there's no way to access the type-hint of a reflected method parameter without calling its ReflectionParameter::getClass method and subsequently instantiating a reflection class from the returned class name (if null is returned the param has no type-hint). This is where caching generated reflections becomes particularly important for any real-world use-case.
The code below is a severely stripped-down version of my own string-based recursive dependency injection container. It's a mixture of pseudo-code and real-code (if you were hoping for free code to copy/paste you're out of luck). You'll see that the code below matches the associative array keys of "definition" arrays to the parameter names in the constructor signature.
The real code can be found over at the relevant github project page.
class Provider {
private $definitions;
public function define($class, array $definition) {
$class = strtolower($class);
$this->definitions[$class] = $definition;
}
public function make($class, array $definition = null) {
$class = strtolower($class);
if (is_null($definition) && isset($this->definitions[$class])) {
$definition = $this->definitions[$class];
}
$reflClass = new ReflectionClass($class);
$instanceArgs = $this->buildNewInstanceArgs($reflClass);
return $reflClass->newInstanceArgs($instanceArgs);
}
private function buildNewInstanceArgs(
ReflectionClass $reflClass,
array $definition
) {
$instanceArgs = array();
$reflCtor = $reflClass->getConstructor();
// IF no constructor exists we're done and should just
// return a new instance of $class:
// return $this->make($reflClass->name);
// otherwise ...
$reflCtorParams = $reflCtor->getParameters();
foreach ($reflCtorParams as $ctorParam) {
if (isset($definition[$ctorParam->name])) {
$instanceArgs[] = $this->make($definition[$ctorParam->name]);
continue;
}
$typeHint = $this->getParameterTypeHint($ctorParam);
if ($typeHint && $this->isInstantiable($typeHint)) {
// The typehint is instantiable, go ahead and make a new
// instance of it
$instanceArgs[] = $this->make($typeHint);
} elseif ($typeHint) {
// The typehint is abstract or an interface. We can't
// proceed because we already know we don't have a
// definition telling us which class to instantiate
throw Exception;
} elseif ($ctorParam->isDefaultValueAvailable()) {
// No typehint, try to use the default parameter value
$instanceArgs[] = $ctorParam->getDefaultValue();
} else {
// If all else fails, try passing in a NULL or something
$instanceArgs[] = NULL;
}
}
return $instanceArgs;
}
private function getParameterTypeHint(ReflectionParameter $param) {
// ... see the note about retrieving parameter typehints
// in the exposition ...
}
private function isInstantiable($class) {
// determine if the class typehint is abstract/interface
// RTM on reflection for how to do this
}
}

Is there a way to keep a php object in memory to avoid disk reads and wirtes?

So I have an object that reads a file from disk gnugpg it appears to always create a gnugpg key ring in a home directory.
I want to avoid having to load this object every time a php script is called from apache.
is there away to have a php object stay in memory?
If it's a small object that doesn't take up much memory and is serializable you could just store it in the session:
function getSessionObject($objectName, $params){
$sessionObjectSerialized = getSessionVariable($objectName, FALSE);
if($sessionObjectSerialized == FALSE){
$sessionObjectSerialized = constructSessionObject($objectName, $params);
setSessionVariable($objectName, $sessionObjectSerialized);
}
$sessionObject = unserialize($sessionObjectSerialized);
return $sessionObject;
}
function constructSessionObject($objectName, $params = array()){
switch($objectName){
case('gnugpg_key_ring'):{
$gnugpgKeyRing = getGNUPGKeyRing(); //do whatever you need to do to make the keyring.
return serialize($countryScheme);
}
default:{
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Unknown object name objectName, cannot retrieve from session.");
break;
}
}
}
//Call this before anything else
function initSession(){
session_name('projectName');
session_start();
}
function setSessionVariable($name, $value){
$_SESSION['projectName'][$name] = $value;
}
function getSessionVariable($name, $default = FALSE){
if(isset($_SESSION['projectName'])){
if(isset($_SESSION['projectName'][$name])){
$value = $_SESSION['projectName'][$name];
}
}
return $default;
}
and then retrieve that object by calling
getSessionObject('gnugpg_key_ring');
However not all objects are always serializable e.g. if the object holds a file handle to an open file, that would need to have some extra code to close the file when the object is serialized and then re-open the file when the object was unserialized.
If the object is large, then you would be better off using a proper caching tool like memcached to store the serialized object, rather than the session.

How to Initialize a Instance of a PHP Class using another Object Instance?

What would be a good way (along with any pros and cons) of initializing an instance of a PHP class with another object of the same class (ideally in PHP 4.x)?
Here in initialize() is essentially what I'd like to be able to do (example is extremely simplified from my use-case, see below):
$product = new Product('Widget');
$product2 = new Product('Widget #2');
$product->initialize($product2);
echo $product->name; // echos "Widget #2"
class Product {
var $name;
function __constructor($name) {
$this->name = $name;
}
function initialize($product) {
// I know this cannot be done this way in PHP.
// What are the alternatives and their pros & cons?
$this = $product;
}
}
I know this may not be "good programming practice"; with 20+ years programming experience on other languages I know a bit about what's good and what's not. So hopefully we won't get hung up on if doing this makes sense or not. I have a use-case working with some open-source code that I can't change so please just bear with me on my need for it. I'm actually trying to create an OOP wrapper around some really ugly array code buried deep in the core of WordPress.
I'm trying to write it so in future versions they can move away from the ugly array-based code because everyone will be using the new API that otherwise fully encapsulated these nasty arrays. But to make it work elegantly I need to be able to do the above (in PHP 4.x) and I don't want to write code that just copies the properties.
Thanks in advance for your help.
UPDATE
Many of you are suggesting clone but unless I misunderstand that doesn't address the question. clone makes a copy; that's not the crux of the question. I'm instead trying to get the constructed object to "become" the object passed in. At this point I'm assuming there isn't a way to do that based on the fact that 0 out of 5 answers have suggested anything but I'll wait a bit longer before selecting a best in case it was simply that my questions was unclear.
In PHP 5, object cloning might be more relevant:
http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.cloning.php
You can define a special __clone method.
In PHP 4 and 5, you can copy properties via:
function copy($obj)
{
foreach (get_object_vars($obj) as $key => $val)
{
$this->$key = $val;
}
}
However, you wrote "I don't want to write code that just copies the properties," and I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that.
Preferred way of doing this is to use clone keyword and to implement appropriate __clone() method if needed as mentioned by other posters. Another trick way of doing this (con: slow, pros: can be stored, sent over network and works identical in php4/5) is to serialize an object and then unserialize to create new copies of it with identical variable values.
Example:
$productCopy = unserialize(serialize($product));
EDIT: Sorry, misunderstood what you were asking for. You will have to initialize variables of the object being constructed with passed in object's variables inside of the constructor. You can't return a reference to another object from the constructor.
Example:
public function __construct($name, $object = null) {
if($object) {
foreach(get_object_vars($object) as $k => $v) {
$this->$k = $v;
}
} else {
$this->name = $name;
}
}
class Product {
var $name;
function __construct($value) {
if (is_a($value, 'Product')) {
$this->name = $value->name;
} else {
$this->name = $value;
}
}
}
Similarly, you can use instanceof instead of is_a if you prefer (depending on your PHP version).
Now you can pass a Product instance OR a name to the construct.
$product = new Product('Something');
$clone = new Product($product);
This is the best way of doing it so far:
http://www.blrf.net/howto/51_PHP__How_to_control_object_instances_in_PHP_.html
Don't use "new", instead use a static function that returns the instance you want.
I have done the following:
class MyClass {
private static $_instances;
public static function get($id) {
if (!self::$_instances) self::$_instances = Array();
$class = get_called_class();
if (!array_key_exists($class, self::$_instances)) self::$_instances[$class] = Array();
if (!is_numeric($id) || $id == '') throw new Exception('Cannot instantiate a non-numeric ID.');
if (array_key_exists($id, self::$_instances[$class])) return self::$_instances[$class][$id];
else {
self::$_instances[$class][$id] = new static($id);
return self::$_instances[$class][$id];
}
}
function __construct($id=false) {
// new instance code...
// I use $id=false to create new a db table row not load an old one
}
}
Usage:
// New instance
$a = new MyClass();
$a = new MyClass;
// MyClass with $id = 1
$b = MyClass::get(1);
$c = MyClass::get(1);
$d = new MyClass(1);
$b and $c point to the same object, while $d is a new one.
Caveats:
Garbage collection will no longer apply as your instances are stored in a static array
You'll have to change your code to use MyClass::get
Notes in my code:
New instances are called with "new static" instead of "new self" to use late static bindings.
You can set your constructor to private. This will break all your old code if you use "new", but will ensure you don't get double instances or more. You'll have to change a bit in the get function's arguments and code to allow $id=false or $id=-1 or whatever.
maybe
$product = new Product('Widget');
$product2 = new Product(null, $product);
echo $product2->name; // echos "Widget #2"
class Product {
var $name;
function __constructor($name, $product = null) {
$this->name = !empty($name) ? $name : $product->name;
}
}
Adding another answer due to it being radically different.
$product = new Product('Widget');
$product2 = new Product('Widget #2');
$product =& $product2;
echo $product->name; // echos "Widget #2"
That should work.

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