php not throwing an Exception in function overriding - php

I have a class named DataBoundObject which is quite big. And works good. Its an ORM class i have developed. One of its functions is to automatically do the setXXX() and getXXX() functions so that no coding is required. The following function does that
public function __call($strFunction, $arArguments) {
$strMethodType = substr ( $strFunction, 0, 3 );
$strMethodMember = substr ( $strFunction, 3 );
if(!is_callable(array($this, $strFunction)))
throw new Exception("Function cannot be called!");
switch ($strMethodType) {
case "set" :
return ($this->SetAccessor ( $strMethodMember, $arArguments [0] ));
break;
case "get" :
return ($this->GetAccessor ( $strMethodMember ));
break;
default :
throw new Exception ( "Non existent method call dude!" );
}
return false;
}
Now in a class which derives this i override one function like this:
<?php
require_once ('DataBoundObject.php');
/**
* ORM extension of BUBBLES_HOTEL_REVIEWS Tabel
* #author footy
* #copyright Ajitah
*
*/
class reviews extends DataBoundObject {
protected $ReviewID;
//Other codes
private function setReviewID($ReviewID) {
throw new Exception ( "Cannot set the review ID Explicitly" );
}
//Other codes
//Other codes
//Other codes
//Other codes
//Other codes
}
$x = new reviews();
$x->setReviewID(5);
?>
Thus finally i create a new object and try to call setReviewID() function which is private. Why is it not generating any Exception? Besides is_callable() is returning true!
EDIT
Mainly i need help to correct this problem so that it throws an Exception

You can't override private methods using __call magic in PHP. I allow myself to quote from php.net website http://php.net/language.oop5.visibility#92995, where your question is perfectly answered in a comment:
In the overriding, the method names and arguments (arg’s) must be
same.
final methods can’t be overridden.
private methods never participate in the in the overriding because
these methods are not visible in the child classes.
While overriding decreasing access specifier is not allowed
If you desperately need this feature - your (unconventional) options will be:
Use public scope for the method, documenting the function of its restrictions for other developers in PHPDoc string.
You can use PECL extensions like runkit sandbox http://php.net/book.runkit
Go for code generation or preprocessor.
Choose a different language.
EDIT
Note that, protected child method is also hidden form the parent, but there is always an option of overriding __call() in a child. Generally, making too much "magical" overrides may be a bad taste for such a serious undertaken as ORM design.
PS
I believe eventually developing a DSL could be an ultimate goal for your project. Before doing so, continuing your project is a nice way to gather respective experience. GL!

Related

Typehinting through Zend_Registry::get() - how to make navigation to declaration understandable to PhpStorm?

You can pass anything to Zend_Registry::set('myWidget', $someWidget), so that it's available later on.
However, when you retrieve it elsewhere, PhpStorm IDE has no clues to the type of 'myWidget'.
<?php
class AwesomeWidget {
public function doBazFlurgle() {
// doesn't matter what exactly happens here
return mt_rand();
}
}
?>
<?php
class FooController {
public function init() {
$someWidget = new AwesomeWidget();
Zend_Registry::set('awesome', $someWidget);
}
public function barAction() {
$this->init();
$awesome = Zend_Registry::get('awesome');
$awesomeNumber = $awesome->doBazFlurgle();
}
}
Navigate to declaration on the ->doBazFlurgle() call gets me a "Cannot find declaration to go to".
I could add a /** #var AwesomeWidget $awesome */ annotation, but that would require editing in many places in a sizable codebase
I could also add a return type annotation to Zend_Registry, but that does not look very maintainable (there are many instances of different classes stored this way).
I could search for the string doBazFlurgle through Find In Path..., but that is not entirely convenient (many keystrokes as opposed to a single Ctrl+click)
I noticed that NetBeans is capable of jumping to the method definition in this exact situation; is there a simple way of doing the same in PHPStorm without going through "search the entire codebase for doBazFlurgle"? I have searched available IDE actions, plugins, and fora; all in vain.
There is a way: as pointed out by #LazyOne, making a list of "what is returned from where" helps the IDE make sense of such code; this is somewhat documented on Jetbrains' website:
<?php
/** #link https://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/PhpStorm/PhpStorm+Advanced+Metadata */
// note that this is not valid PHP code, just a stub for the IDE
namespace PHPSTORM_META {
$STATIC_METHOD_TYPES = [
\Zend_Registry::get('') => [
'awesome' instanceof \AwesomeWidget, // this is the class as seen in the question
'fooSetting' instanceof \Zend_Config, // this came in from application settings
'quuxData' instanceof \ArrayAccess, // an arraylike object
]
];
}
Including this file (named .phpstorm.meta.php by convention) in the project has resolved the issue. This file is not valid PHP - PhpStorm only uses it for typehinting. That way, Zend_Registry::get('awesome')->doBazFlurgle() is correctly resolved as calling the method on an instance of \AwesomeWidget.
There is a workaround:
Position cursor into doBazFlurgle method call (click or cursor movement)
Select word (Ctrl+W)
Navigate to symbol (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N)
method will be offered in dropdown
Select method (Enter)
Although this is not quite as clumsy as a generic string search, it is still not quite as convenient as the usual navigate to declaration.

Using PHPUnit to mock a programatically determined method not specified in the class under test

Using PHPUnit 3.6 I'm trying to test the exec() method in the below controller class. This method does two things:
Determines the name of the method to call based on the object's existing properties, and ...
If the determined controller method is callable it is executed and if not the method throws an exception
The (simplified) source code looks like this:
abstract class CLIController extends Controller
{
/* irrelevant class details here */
public function exec()
{
$action = ! empty($this->opts->args[0])
? $this->opts->args[0]
: $this->default_action;
if ( ! $action || ! is_callable(array($this, $action))) {
$msg = 'Invalid controller action specified';
throw new LogicException($msg);
} else {
$this->$action(); // <---- trying to get code coverage on this line!
}
}
}
So my problem is ...
I can't figure out how to get coverage on this part of the code:
} else {
$this->$action();
}
because I'm not sure how to (or that it's even possible to) test the invocation of a method whose name is not known in the context of the abstract class. Again: the method to be called is declared in child classes. Normally I would just mock an abstract method but I can't in this case because the method doesn't exist yet -- it will be specified by a child class.
What might be the answer ...
??? It may be possible that this line doesn't even need to be covered because it essentially relies on PHP's ability to correctly invoke a callable class method. If I successfully test that exec() throws an exception when it's supposed to, I know that correct functioning of the line in question depends on PHP functioning correctly. Does this invalidate the need to test it in the first place ???
If there is some way to mock the abstract class and create a method with a known name to add to the mocked class this would solve my problem and is what I've been trying unsuccessfully to do so far.
I know I could create a child class with a known method name but I don't believe it's a good idea to create a concrete child class just to test an abstract parent.
It could be that I need to refactor. One thing I don't want to do is leave child classes to implement the exec() function on their own.
What I've tried ...
Use some of PHP's reflection capabilities to no avail -- this may perhaps be due to my own inexperience with reflection and not its inability to handle this case, though.
Going back and forth through the PHPUnit manual and API docs. Unfortunately, as awesome as PHPUnit is, I often find the API documentation a bit light.
I would really appreciate any guidance on how best to proceed here. Thanks in advance.
I disagree with your stipulation that "it's [not] a good idea to create a concrete child class just to test an abstract parent." I do this quite often when testing abstract classes and usually name the concrete subclass after the test to make it clear.
class CLIControllerTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
public function testCallsActionMethod()
{
$controller = new CLIControllerTest_WithActionMethod(...);
// set $controller->opts->args[0] to 'action'
$controller->exec();
self::assertTrue($controller->called, 'Action method was called');
}
}
class CLIControllerTest_WithActionMethod extends CLIController
{
public $called = false;
public function action() {
$this->called = true;
}
}
The code to make this test happen is trivial and can be easily verified by inspection.
I'm curious, why use is_callable instead of method_exists to avoid creating the array? It's probably just personal preference, but I'm wondering if there are any semantic differences.

Cannot Declare Child Class Method declared in Interface on Super Class

This should be a pretty straightforward classes and interfaces question, but please bear with me while I lay out my example.
In the Propel ORM library, all the database tables are abstracted as classes called BaseTablename. Various methods for interacting with the database are defined in the base obect. Then the library also generates classes named after the tables, such as Tablename, which are super convenient for overriding the base methods and adding custom methods.
I'm just trying to override the default delete() method to be able to delete some dependent data. But when I declare the overriding method, I get the following error:
Fatal error: Declaration of Tablename::delete() must be compatible with that of Persistent::delete()
So, considering the following basic definitions, why is it that I cannot override the delete() method?
/**
* Part of the Propel library
*/
interface Persistent {
public function delete (PropelPDO $con = null);
}
/**
* Generated by Propel
*/
class BaseTablename extends BaseObject implements Persistent {
public function delete (PropelPDO $con = null) {
doesImportantStuff();
}
}
/**
* Skeleton class is generated by Propel
*/
class Tablename extends BaseTablename {
/**
* MY OWN BEAUTIFUL [BUT BROKEN] CODE
*/
public function delete (PropelPDO $con = null) {
doMyOwnStuff();
// Added this 2011-05-30 -- As it happens, this IS the Problem!
// I needed to add the $con parameter to the call to preserve
// the "chain of compatibility", so to speak.
parent::delete();
}
}
Update: I've added my parent::delete() call, which I failed to include in my original example code. It really would have made all the difference. Sorry folks, and thanks so much to those who confirmed the working code
The answer was that I needed to preserve the parameter on all declarations and calls. My overloaded function should have read:
public function delete (PropelPDO $con = null) {
doMyOwnStuff();
parent::delete($con);
}
This code works. Problem must be in server copy or PHP version. (I've run the tests over PHP Version 5.3.3-7+squeeze1 without problems)
Well I've run another simple test. Using your code but with two echo's and it works as expeted. Like in C in this case the interface acts as a prototype so as you say, it's needed to be the same params and visibility on the classes that it implements.

Class Plugins in PHP?

i just got some more questions while learning PHP, does php implement any built in plugin system?
so the plugin would be able to change the behavior of the core component.
for example something like this works:
include 'core.class.php';
include 'plugin1.class.php';
include 'plugin2.class.php';
new plugin2;
where
core.class.php contains
class core {
public function coremethod1(){
echo 'coremethod1';
}
public function coremethod2(){
echo 'coremethod2';
}
}
plugin1.class.php contains
class plugin1 extends core {
public function coremethod1(){
echo 'plugin1method1';
}
}
plugin2.class.php contains
class plugin2 extends plugin1 {
public function coremethod2(){
echo 'plugin2method2';
}
}
This would be ideal, if not for the problem that now the plugins are dependable on each other, and removing one of the plugins:
include 'core.class.php';
//include 'plugin1.class.php';
include 'plugin2.class.php';
new plugin2;
breaks the whole thing...
are there any proper methods to doing this?
if there are not, them i might consider moving to a different langauge that supports this...
thanks for any help.
edit:
obviously it is my understanding that is lacking, so here is a
attempt at a clarification.
core.class.php contains anything...
plugin1.class.php contains anything...
plugin2.class.php contains anything...
include 'core.class.php';
include 'plugin1.class.php';
include 'plugin2.class.php';
$core = new core;
$core->coremethod1();//outputs plugin2method1
whereas:
include 'core.class.php';
include 'plugin2.class.php';
$core = new core;
$core->coremethod1();//outputs plugin1method1
I'm interested in any implementation, even one not involving classes
for example
include 'core.php';
//does core stuff
include 'core.php';
include 'plugin1';
//does extended core stuff
include 'core.php';
include 'plugin2';
//does extended core stuff
include 'core.php';
include 'plugin2';
include 'plugin1';
//does very extended core stuff
including a file needs to change the application behavior. for it to have any meaning.
I do not know what this is called either, so point me at the proper naming if there is any.
You are misusing the term "plugin". A plugin is generally a package of code that extends or alters the base functionality of a system - to make actual PHP plugins (which in the PHP world are called extensions) you'd be writing C or C++.
What you're describing here is merely including classes or class trees into the current execution for usage. And there is a way to bring them into the current execution context 'automatically', and that's via the autoload system.
If, after you've read the documentation on autoloading, you are still unsure of how to move forward, comment here and I will help you along.
EDIT
Ok, I see what you're after. You can't do exactly what you're after. When you execute new core; an instance of the class core will be returned - you can't modify that at all.
However, if you are willing to modify how you create instances of core, then I think I have something that could work for you, and it might look something like this.
class core {
public function coremethod1(){
echo 'coremethod1';
}
public function coremethod2(){
echo 'coremethod2';
}
/**
* #return core
*/
final public static function create()
{
// listed in order of preference
$plugins = array( 'plugin2', 'plugin1' );
foreach ( $plugins as $plugin )
{
if ( class_exists( $plugin ) )
{
return new $plugin();
}
}
return new self;
}
}
class plugin1 extends core {
public function coremethod1(){
echo 'plugin1method1';
}
}
class plugin2 extends plugin1 {
public function coremethod2(){
echo 'plugin2method2';
}
}
$core = core::create();
// test what we have
echo get_class( $core ), '<br>'
, $core->coremethod1(), '<br>'
, $core->coremethod2()
;
If your only concern is that not including plugin1 will create an error, then you can resort to autoloading to have plugin2 load plugin1 automatically:
From the comments in the PHP Manual on spl_autoload
// Your custom class dir
define('CLASS_DIR', 'class/')
// Add your class dir to include path
set_include_path(get_include_path().PATH_SEPARATOR.CLASS_DIR);
// You can use this trick to make autoloader look
// for commonly used "My.class.php" type filenames
spl_autoload_extensions('.class.php');
// Use default autoload implementation
spl_autoload_register();
If, however, you are looking for a traits/mixin-like feature, then the answer is no. PHP does not support this as of now. At least not without patching the core or resorting to these two APIs you do not want to use in production code.
The proper way to change how an object behaves at runtime would be to use Decorators:
$class = new BasicCache( new BasicValidators ( new Basic ) );
or Strategy patterns:
$class = new Basic;
$class->setStrategy(function() { return 'foo'} );
echo $class->callStrategy(); // foo
$class->setStrategy(function() { return 'bar'} );
echo $class->callStrategy(); // bar
See http://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns for the most common patterns.
EDIT Here is an example of how to create plugins with decorators. Assume, we have a game of some sort where some non-player characters walk around in a virtual space and greet the main character from time to time. That's all they do right now. We want some variation on how they greet though, which is why we need our plugins/decorators in this scenario.
First we create an interface that defines some methods any object able to greet should have. We don't care about what it does when these methods are invoked on a specific object. We just want to make sure that the methods are available and that they are called with a clearly defined input:
interface GreetInterface
{
public function greet($name);
public function setGreeting($greeting);
}
An interface is basically a contract any implementing object must fulfill. In our case, the contract says, if you are an object that can greet, you have to have two methods. Implement them any way you like, but have these methods.
Let's build our non-player character classes now, implementing this interface
class Dude implements GreetInterface
{
protected $greeting = 'hello';
public function greet($name)
{
return sprintf('%s %s', $this->greeting, $name);
}
public function setGreeting($greeting)
{
$this->greeting = $greeting;
return $this;
}
}
That's pretty straigtforward I guess. The Dude class just defines the two methods from the interface. When greet() is called, it will fetch the string stored in greeting and prepend to the param passed to the greet method. The setGreeting method allows us to change the greeting at runtime. Note: you could add a getter as well (I was just lazy)
Now on to the plugins. We will create an abstract GreetPlugin class to contain some shared boilerplate code, simply because we don't want to duplicate code in our actual plugins. The abstract plugin class will implement the GreetInterface, so we can make sure all subclasses implement the interface too.
Since Dude already implements the interface as well, we could have the plugins extend Dude, but that would be conceptually wrong, because extending creates an is-a relationship, but a plugin is not a Dude.
abstract class GreetPluginAbstract implements GreetInterface
{
protected $inner;
public function __construct(GreetInterface $inner)
{
$this->inner = $inner;
}
public function setGreeting($greeting)
{
$this->inner->setGreeting($greeting);
return $this;
}
public function greet($name)
{
return $this->inner->greet($name);
}
}
The plugin class accepts one argument when initialized: any class implementing the GreetInterface. The TypeHint makes sure, the class fulfills the contract. That's required, because, as you can see in the code, our plugins will need to call the methods in the interface on the class passed through the constructor. If we had extended from Dude, we would now be able to wrap dudes into dudes, which is a bit odd. Another reason for not doing it.
Now on to the first plugin. We want some of our dudes to speak with a fancy french accent, which means they use âccénts all over the place, but cannot pronounce a proper h. Disclaimer: yes, I know that's a cliche. Please bear with my examples
class FrenchPlugin extends GreetPluginAbstract
{
public function greet($name) {
return str_replace(array('h', 'e'), array('', 'é'),
$this->inner->greet($name));
}
}
Since the Plugin extends the abstract plugin, we can now focus on the actual code that modifies how a regular dude would do his greeting. When greet() is called, we call greet() on the wrapped element and then remove all h characters and turn all es into és. Everything else is unmodified abstract behavior.
In another plugin, we want to change the wording of the greeting, so we have some dudes say Heya, instead of just Hello. Just to add some variation.
class EasyGoingPlugin extends GreetPluginAbstract
{
protected $inner;
public function __construct(GreetInterface $inner) {
$this->inner = $inner->setGreeting('heya');
parent::__construct($inner);
}
}
This way we only override the constructor, because the greet method should just return whatever it will be. So we call the setGreeting method on the object passed to this plugin. Because the object has to implement the GreetInterface, we can be sure this works.
Note that I am assigning the return value of setGreeting as the inner object. This is possible because I return $this, whenever setMethod is called. This cannot be enforced through the interface, so you cannot rely on this form the interface. I just added it to show another technique: method chaining.
With two plugins done, we feel we have enough variation. Now we only need a convenient way to create Dudes. For that we create a small class like this:
class DudeBuilder
{
public static function build()
{
$dude = new Dude();
$decorators = func_get_args();
foreach($decorators as $decorator) {
$decorator .= "Plugin";
// require_once $decorator;
$dude = new $decorator($dude);
}
return $dude;
}
}
Note: I always mix up Builder and AbstractFactory, so if the above is a Factory, well, then it's a factory. Check out the design patterns links I gave earlier on ;)
All this Builder does, is create a regular dude and then wrap/decorate it into/with whatever plugins we tell it to use and than return it. Because the builder encapsulates no own state, we make the build method static.
For this example I assume you used the autoloading code I gave right on top. If not, you can include the plugin files in the foreach loop. Lazy loading them only when they are needed will give you a few microseconds faster load times over including them all on top. Hopefully, this also explains what I meant in the various comments when I argued the behavior should not be controlled by a file inclusion. The file inclusion is just a necessity. You cannot use a class that is not know to PHP. But that the class is actually used, is controlled by our code alone, by passing in the plugin names to the build method.
Let's do this now
$regularDude = DudeBuilder::build();
$frenchDude = DudeBuilder::build('French');
$easygoingDude = DudeBuilder::build('EasyGoing');
$frenchEasyGoingDude = DudeBuilder::build('French', 'EasyGoing');
This is effectively the same as doing:
$regularDude = new Dude;
$frenchDude = new FrenchPlugin(new Dude);
$easygoingDude = new EasyGoingPlugin(new Dude);
$frenchEasyGoingDude = new FrenchPlugin(new EasyGoingPlugin(new Dude));
With just two plugins, we can now create three types of Dudes. Let's have them greet you:
echo $regularDude->greet('Yuri'), PHP_EOL,
$frenchDude->greet('Yuri'), PHP_EOL,
$easygoingDude->greet('Yuri'), PHP_EOL,
$frenchEasyGoingDude->greet('Yuri'), PHP_EOL;
// gives
hello Yuri
éllo Yuri
heya Yuri
éya Yuri
We can now create additional plugins to decorate our basic classes with. If for some reason, you decide your game should have talking horses or cars as well, you could also create a class Car or Horse and have it implement the greet interface too and add a Builder for them. You can then reuse the plugins to create French EasyGoing Cars or Horses.
PHP core can be extended with PECL extensions (which are C++, I believe).
Core functions can be overridden (if you have the APD PECL extension installed) with override_function
User functions can be executed with call_user_func.
Maybe if you could explain what you are planning, we'd be able to offer a better answer?
Your code is breaking because plugin2 extends plugin1, and you're not including the plugin1 class. Why not make class plugin2 extend core? That seems to be what you're going for.

unit test a method that creates an object

I'm trying to get my head round Unit Testing and there's one more piece of the jigsaw I need to find.
What I'm trying to do is write tests for the following code. In this case, I've got a really simple Front Controller (written in PHP).
class frontController
{
public function routeRequest($oRequest)
{
$sClassname = $oRequest->getController();
$sMethod = $oRequest->getAction();
$oController = new $sClassname();
$oResponse = $oController->{$sMethod}($oRequest);
return $oResponse;
}
}
The problem I have is because the code creates new objects. I can easily mock the request object so that I can tightly control what it will actually do within my test case. I'm not sure the best way to actually replace the controller with a test double.
This article from IBM suggests having a factory method for creating my controller and then overriding this with a specific class used for testing:
class frontController
{
public function routeRequest($oRequest)
{
$sMethod = $oRequest->getAction();
$oController = $this->createController($oRequest);
$oResponse = $oController->{$sMethod}($oRequest);
return $oResponse;
}
protected function createController($oRequest)
{
$sClassname = $oRequest->getController();
return new $sClassname();
}
}
and then for testing perhaps something like this:
class testFrontController extends frontController
{
public function setMockController($oMockController)
{
$this->oMc = $oMockController;
}
protected function createController($oRequest)
{
return $this->oMockController;
}
}
(note this isn't quite what the article says, but I'm thinking it would be most useful to me if it did this)
Another solution could be to have another class that creates the controller. This would then be a dependent class of the frontController. This way I can replace the factory/creation class during testing with a test double. Something like this:
class frontController
{
public function routeRequest($oRequest, $oControllerFactory)
{
$sMethod = $oRequest->getAction();
$oController = $oControllerFactory->create($oRequest);
$oResponse = $oController->{$sMethod}($oRequest);
return $oResponse;
}
}
class controllerFactory
{
public function create($oRequest)
{
$sClassname = $oRequest->getController();
return new $sClassname();
}
}
I guess the dependency injection could be taken care of in the front controller constructor or via a setter instead of a parameter to the actual "route" method.
I think I prefer option 2.
Is either of these two methods the right way of going about testing this kind of thing?
(perhaps "good way" would be better word here!)
Any thoughts or suggestions on option 1 vs option 2 appreciated or indeed any alternatives. Remember - the key thing is about how to test an object that itself creates other objects as part of its execution.
Thanks!
You might find this article handy.
It discusses how object creation should be separated from the actual running of the application.
I generally find factories to be a good thing to use for this scenario. In addition to the swappability aspect, it means that additional parameters, data, or dependencies required by the object being created can be stored by the factory, and so the object which actually requests the new object doesn't have to know anything about them...
You do not want to use the real controller but a mock, right ?
It seems to me the simplest way to achieve this would be to subclass the request so that it returns the name of a MockController.
I assume you have thought through your assertions so as to define the goal of what exactly you are testing. Keep in mind that unit tests are going to be testing the returns from your methods, which, in this case, is $oResponse (whatever this may be). As a result, your test assertions will be based on this return value. Since I don't know what that return value is from your code snippets, I can only demonstrate an example that you can complete.
I would recommend PHPUnit for your testing as it seems to be the most complete package for PHP imho (many are fans of SimpleTest, as well ... to each their own).
It would look something like this (Please note that I have left out includes for brevity. Read the PHPUnit documentation for more information):
class AimTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase{
private $_controller = null;
private $_request = null;
public function setUp(){
$this->_controller = new frontController();
//what does this object's type?
$this->_request = new requestObject();
}
public function testObjectCreation(){
/*
* note, that this is only one of several assertions that could
* be made depending on the return value
*/
$return = $this->_controller->routeRequest($this->_request);
//tailor to what you expect your output to be
$this->assertTrue($return == "my expected output");
}
Hope I didn't miss the mark completely on your stated purpose. Moral of the story is that you can only test what your methods return. If you want to test object instantiation from a method, use the instanceof PHP function against a method that returns that object after instantiation.

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