What are best way of error handling? This is what I came up with:
class test {
public static function Payment($orderid, $total) {
if (empty($orderid) && empty($total)) {
return array('status' => 'fail', 'error' => 'Missing Data');
}
}
}
I heard about Try/Exceptions but how to fit that into my code? If you could provide example that would be great!
If you use PHP 5, you can handle error with exception :
http://fr2.php.net/manual/en/class.exception.php
This way is cleaner than manual set exception message, because you have access to a try catch system and you can isolate exception handling
As mentioned, use Exceptions. Specific to your example, you throw an exception if some condition fails. Then when you envoke the method that can throw an exception, you wrap it with a try/catch handling block.
class test {
public static function Payment( $orderid, $total ) {
if (empty( $orderid ) && empty( $total )) {
throw new Exception('Missing Data');
}
}
}
try {
test::Payment("1", "2"); //should be fine
test::Payment(); //should throw exception
} catch (Exception $e){
echo $e;
//do other things if you need
}
You could use exceptions.
However, in the use case you've posted, simply doing the checks at the controller level should suffice.
I also think that explicitly checking the return type for array (on fail) is counter intuitive.
Here is how you might modify your code to use an exception. It also helps to document the circumstances under which the exception is thrown.
class test {
/**
* [method description]
* #throws Exception if the order ID or total is empty
*/
public static function Payment($orderid, $total) {
if (empty($orderid) && empty($total)) {
throw new Exception("fail: Missing Data");
}
}
}
You can also create your own exception class if you want to include extra data in the exception.
class MyException extends Exception{
public $status, $error;
public function __construct($status, $error){
parent::__construct("$status: $error");
$this->status = $status;
$this->error = $error;
}
}
I tend to lean towards throwing exceptions, and then using the try/catch mechanism to deal with the aftermath. The man page is here: http://php.net/manual/en/language.exceptions.php
The best practice is to use Exceptions.
http://php.net/manual/en/language.exceptions.php
Related
I don't understand how to properly create and return useful error messages with PHP to the web.
I have a class
class Foo {
const OK_IT_WORKED = 0;
const ERR_IT_FAILED = 1;
const ERR_IT_TIMED_OUT = 3;
public function fooItUp(){
if(itFooed)
return OK_IT_WORKED;
elseif(itFooedUp)
return ERR_IT_FAILED;
elseif(itFooedOut)
return ERR_IT_TIMED_OUT;
}
}
And another class that uses this class to do something useful, then return the result to the user. I am just wondering where I put the string value for all my error messages.
class Bar {
public function doFooeyThings(stuff){
$res = $myFoo->fooItUp();
// now i need to tell the user what happened, but they don't understand error codes
if($res === Foo::OK_IT_WORKED)
return 'string result here? seems wrong';
elseif ($res === Foo::ERR_IT_FAILED)
return Foo::ERR_IT_FAILED_STRING; // seems redundant?
elseif($res === Foo:ERR_IT_TIMED_OUT)
return $res; // return number and have an "enum" in the client (js) ?
}
}
You should avoid returning error states whenever possible. Use exceptions instead. If you've never used exceptions before you can read about them here
There multiple ways you can utilize exceptions in your example. You could create custom exceptions for every error or for every category of error. More on custom exceptions here or you could create an instance of the default Exception class supplying it the error messages as strings.
The code below follows the second approach:
class Foo {
const OK_IT_WORKED = 0;
const ERR_IT_FAILED = 1;
const ERR_IT_TIMED_OUT = 3;
public function fooItUp(){
if(itFooed)
return OK_IT_WORKED;
else if(itFooedUp)
throw new Exception("It failed")
else if(itFooedOut)
throw new Exception("Request timed out");
}
}
I'm sure you can think of some more elegant messages than the ones I used. Anyway, you can then go ahead and handle those exceptions on the caller method using try/catch blocks:
class Bar {
public function doFooeyThings(stuff){
try
{
$res = myFoo->fooItUp();
}
catch(Exception $e)
{
//do something with the error message
}
}
}
Whatever exception is thrown from fooItUp will be "caught" by the catch block and handled by your code.
Two things you should also consider are:
It's best not to show your users detailed information about errors because those information could be used by users with malicious intent
Ideally you should have some kind of global exception handling
One solution is to use exceptions in conjunction with set_exception_handler().
<?php
set_exception_handler(function($e) {
echo "Error encountered: {$e->getMessage()}";
});
class ErrorMessageTest
{
public function isOk()
{
echo "This works okay. ";
}
public function isNotOkay()
{
echo "This will not work. ";
throw new RuntimeException("Violets are red, roses are blue!! Wha!?!?");
}
}
$test = new ErrorMessageTest();
$test->isOk();
$test->isNotOkay();
The set_exception_handler() method takes a callable that will accept an exception as its parameter. This let's you provide your own logic for a thrown exception in the event it isn't caught in a try/catch.
Live Demo
See also: set_exception_handler() documentation
My question is about the correct usage of Php Exceptions.
My Php app is an API server.
My code base is quite articulated, to a depth of 5-6 levels of nested calls.
Of course exceptions are a very handy way to handle an error,
since you don't have to handle all error conditions on every level of your function calls...
To better explain what I mean, I make an exaple below.
This is a simplified excerpt from my top level code (the "router"):
...
$this->app->get("/persons/get", function() {
try {
$persons = new PersonsController($this);
$this->success($persons->get());
} catch (Exception $e) {
$this->error($e);
});
};
...
private function error($error) {
$response = $this->app->response();
$response->body(json_encode([
"error" => [
"message" => $error->getMessage(),
]));
}
And this is a simplified excerpt from my bottom level code (the "db"):
...
public function get($table) {
try {
$sql = "SELECT * FROM '$table'";
$statement = $this->db->prepare($sql);
$statement->execute();
$result = $statement->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
return $result;
} catch (PDOException $e) {
throw new Exception("Error getting persons: ", 0, $e);
}
}
I think this is a typical and effective example of useful exception handling: on a fatal error in the bottom level of the code base, the error automatically pops up to the main error handling function. The real advantage here is I don't have to mess up with handling the error condition all along the chain of functions code, from the router level through the db level...
But, what if I should use Exceptions more extensively, in the middle of my functions stack... For example:
class PersonsController {
...
public function sync() {
if (!mkdir($d, 0777)) {
throw new Exception("Can't create folder $d");
}
}
...
}
Instead of, for example:
class PersonsController {
...
public function sync() {
if (!mkdir($d, 0777)) {dir: DEBUG ONLY!
return -1; # this error code will have to be handled upper in the stack...
}
}
...
}
The question is: How extensive can be the use of Exceptions in a Php non-trivial project?
I have to develop an exception handler that should handle like 5 different type of exceptions. Let's call them simply Ex1, Ex2, Ex3...
I though of doing a single class called ExHandler which will be instantiated like this:
...
} catch (Ex1 $e) { $h = new ExHandler($e); $h->render(); }
catch (Ex2 $e) { $h = new ExHandler($e); $h->render(); }
catch (Ex3 $e) { $h = new ExHandler($e); $h->render(); }
...
And inside ExHandler manage each different Exception differently using $e instance of Ex1, $e instance of Ex2, $e instance of Ex3...
But It doesn't seems a very good practice to me. Is it good? Is there any other way of doing this?
Should I create an Ex1Handler, Ex2Handler, Ex3Handler...? My S.O.L.I.D spirit tells me something is just wrong here. What is it?
I need to note before I answer this, that procedural programmers will look at this and think it's dumb :) but I can live with that, this is assuming an OOP application with HTML templating that outputs after the output_buffer is cleaned.
I always create a try/catch block encompassing the majority of my code in one call usually at the point where I start requiring other files as well as starting an output_buffer whilst in development.
ob_start();
try {
switch($appPage) {
case('work'):
require_once('im_bored_at_work.php');
break;
case('home'):
require_once('im_a_little_less_bored_at_home.php');
break;
default:
require_once('on_the_fence.php');
}
} catch (Exception $e) {
// Handle exception caught and apply formatting
}
$devOut = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_flush();
To give an example how I would handle the multiple exceptions you need to catch with a custom class
class CustomExceptionHandler extends Exception {
private $msg;
private $code;
private $otherVars;
public function __construct($msg,$code=0,$otherDebugVar=null){
$this->msg = $msg != null ? $msg : "An unknown exception was thrown";
$this->code = $code;
$this->otherVars = $otherDebugVar;
parent::__construct($msg,$code);
}
public function getOtherVars() {
return $this->otherVars;
}
}
The idea is to just keep the custom information within the exception object, and when you rethrow the exception at the end of a try/catch block as a standard exception you include the formatted custom message, it shouldn't really matter now which Exception handler picked up the original exception as all the info you will need will come downstream and be caught in the original try / catch block.
class BasicTemplate {
private $template;
private $path;
private $contents;
public function __construct($template, $path) {
$this->template = $template;
$this->path = $path;
$this->buildTemplate();
}
private function buildTemplate() {
if ($contents = #file_get_contents($this->path . $this->template)) {
$this->contents = $contents;
} else {
$e = new CustomExceptionHandler("Message",2,$this->path . $this->template);
// Do whatever else you want to do with custom exception handling class
throw $e;
}
}
}
Now you need to catch your exception and rethrow it:
try {
$html = new BasicTemplate($temp,$path);
} catch {CustomExceptionHandler $e) {
throw new Exception("Message: {$e->getMessage()} Other Info: {$e->getOtherVars()}",$e->getCode());
}
That's the rough idea anyhow, hope it helps.
I am trying to understand what the best approach would be to handle Exceptions in the following scenario:
I have a class employee:
class employee extends person {
private $salary;
private $baseSalary = 6.5;
function __construct($f, $m, $l, $a,$fsalary=0){
if(!is_numeric($fsalary)){
throw new Exception("Age supplied is not a number", 114);
}
parent::__construct($f, $m, $l, $a);
$this->salary=$fsalary;
}
function GetDetails(){
return parent::GetName().
"<br/>".
$this->salary;
}
function __toString(){
return $this->GetDetails();
}
}
And using this:
try{
if(!$f = new employee("Sarah", "Sebastian", "Pira", "abc")){
throw new Exception();
}
else {
echo $f;
}
}
catch (Exception $e){
echo "<br/>";
echo var_dump($e);
}
Now I would think it would be a good idea to throw an exception in the class and then use just one catch block in all the scripts that would be using an employee object - But this doesn't seem to work - I need to have a try catch block within the class - Is this the correct way of looking at this?
Thanks
I think what you're saying is that you want to do something like this:
try {
class Employee extends Person {
// ...blah blah...
}
}
catch(Exception $e) {
// handle exception
}
...and then be able to insantiate it in other classes, without explicitly catching any exceptions:
// try { << this would be removed
$employee = new Employee();
// }
// catch(Exception $e) {
// (a whole bunch of code to handle the exception here)
// }
You can't do that, because then the try/catch block in the class will only catch any exceptions that occur when defining the class. They won't be caught when you try to instantiate it because your new Employee line is outside the try/catch block.
So really, your problem is that you want to be able to re-use a try/catch block in multiple places without re-writing the code. In that case, your best solution is to move the contents of the catch block out to a separate function that you can call as necessary. Define the function in the Employee class file and call it like this:
try {
$employee = new Employee();
$employee->doSomeStuff();
$employee->doMoreStuffThatCouldThrowExceptions();
}
catch(Exception $e) {
handle_employee_exception($e);
}
It doesn't get rid of the try/catch block in every file, but it does mean that you don't have to duplicate the implementation of the exception-handling all the time. And don't define handle_employee_exception as an instance method of the class, do it as a separate function, otherwise it will cause a fatal error if the exception is thrown in the constructor because the variable won't exist.
You should read more about Exceptions in PHP.
You can handle exceptions within the methods of the class, sure. But you should rethink how you want to do this and... why.
Good practice is also creating own exception class, so you are able to distinguish exceptions thrown by your module / class from the exceptions thrown by something else. It looks like that (see more):
class EmployeeModule_Exception extends Exception {}
and when it comes to throwing exception:
// the second parameter below is error code
throw new EmployeeModule_Exception('some message', 123);
Catching is similar, only the below example will catch only your module's exceptions:
try {
// some code here
} catch (EmployeeModule_Exception $e) {
// display information about exception caught
echo 'Error message: ' . $e->getMessage() . '<br />';
echo 'Error code: ' . $e->getCode();
}
PHP prior to version 5.5 has no finally block - i.e., whereas in most sensible languages, you can do:
try {
//do something
} catch(Exception ex) {
//handle an error
} finally {
//clean up after yourself
}
PHP has no notion of a finally block.
Anyone have experience of solutions to this rather irritating hole in the language?
Solution, no. Irritating cumbersome workaround, yes:
$stored_exc = null;
try {
// Do stuff
} catch (Exception $exc) {
$stored_exc = $exc;
// Handle an error
}
// "Finally" here, clean up after yourself
if ($stored_exc) {
throw($stored_exc);
}
Yucky, but should work.
Please note: PHP 5.5 finally (ahem, sorry) added a finally block: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/finally (and it only took a few years... available in the 5.5 RC almost four years to the date since I posted this answer...)
The RAII idiom offers a code-level stand-in for a finally block. Create a class that holds callable(s). In the destuctor, call the callable(s).
class Finally {
# could instead hold a single block
public $blocks = array();
function __construct($block) {
if (is_callable($block)) {
$this->blocks = func_get_args();
} elseif (is_array($block)) {
$this->blocks = $block;
} else {
# TODO: handle type error
}
}
function __destruct() {
foreach ($this->blocks as $block) {
if (is_callable($block)) {
call_user_func($block);
} else {
# TODO: handle type error.
}
}
}
}
Coordination
Note that PHP doesn't have block scope for variables, so Finally won't kick in until the function exits or (in global scope) the shutdown sequence. For example, the following:
try {
echo "Creating global Finally.\n";
$finally = new Finally(function () {
echo "Global Finally finally run.\n";
});
throw new Exception;
} catch (Exception $exc) {}
class Foo {
function useTry() {
try {
$finally = new Finally(function () {
echo "Finally for method run.\n";
});
throw new Exception;
} catch (Exception $exc) {}
echo __METHOD__, " done.\n";
}
}
$foo = new Foo;
$foo->useTry();
echo "A whole bunch more work done by the script.\n";
will result in the output:
Creating global Finally.
Foo::useTry done.
Finally for method run.
A whole bunch more work done by the script.
Global Finally finally run.
$this
PHP 5.3 closures can't access $this (fixed in 5.4), so you'll need an extra variable to access instance members within some finally-blocks.
class Foo {
function useThis() {
$self = $this;
$finally = new Finally(
# if $self is used by reference, it can be set after creating the closure
function () use ($self) {
$self->frob();
},
# $this not used in a closure, so no need for $self
array($this, 'wibble')
);
/*...*/
}
function frob() {/*...*/}
function wibble() {/*...*/}
}
Private and Protected Fields
Arguably the biggest problem with this approach in PHP 5.3 is the finally-closure can't access private and protected fields of an object. Like accessing $this, this issue is resolved in PHP 5.4. For now, private and protected properties can be accessed using references, as Artefacto shows in his answer to a question on this very topic elsewhere on this site.
class Foo {
private $_property='valid';
public function method() {
$this->_property = 'invalid';
$_property =& $this->_property;
$finally = new Finally(function () use (&$_property) {
$_property = 'valid';
});
/* ... */
}
public function reportState() {
return $this->_property;
}
}
$f = new Foo;
$f->method();
echo $f->reportState(), "\n";
Private and protected methods can be accessed using reflection. You can actually use the same technique to access non-public properties, but references are simpler and more lightweight. In a comment on the PHP manual page for anonymous functions, Martin Partel gives an example of a FullAccessWrapper class that opens up non-public fields to public access. I won't reproduce it here (see the two previous links for that), but here is how you'd use it:
class Foo {
private $_property='valid';
public function method() {
$this->_property = 'invalid';
$self = new FullAccessWrapper($this);
$finally = new Finally(function () use (&$self) {
$self->_fixState();
});
/* ... */
}
public function reportState() {
return $this->_property;
}
protected function _fixState() {
$this->_property = 'valid';
}
}
$f = new Foo;
$f->method();
echo $f->reportState(), "\n";
try/finally
try blocks require at least one catch. If you only want try/finally, add a catch block that catches a non-Exception (PHP code can't throw anything not derived from Exception) or re-throw the caught exception. In the former case, I suggest catching StdClass as an idiom meaning "don't catch anything". In methods, catching the current class could also be used to mean "don't catch anything", but using StdClass is simpler and easier to find when searching files.
try {
$finally = new Finally(/*...*/);
/* ... */
} catch (StdClass $exc) {}
try {
$finally = new Finally(/*...*/);
/* ... */
} catch (RuntimeError $exc) {
throw $exc
}
Here is my solution to the lack of finally block. It not only provides a work around for the finally block, it also extends the try/catch to catch PHP errors (and fatal errors too). My solution looks like this (PHP 5.3):
_try(
//some piece of code that will be our try block
function() {
//this code is expected to throw exception or produce php error
},
//some (optional) piece of code that will be our catch block
function($exception) {
//the exception will be caught here
//php errors too will come here as ErrorException
},
//some (optional) piece of code that will be our finally block
function() {
//this code will execute after the catch block and even after fatal errors
}
);
You can download the solution with documentation and examples from git hub -
https://github.com/Perennials/travelsdk-core-php/tree/master/src/sys
As this is a language construct, you won't find an easy solution for this.
You can write a function and call it as the last line of your try block and last line before rethrowing the excepion in the try block.
Good books argues against using finally blocks for any other than freeing resource as you can not be sure it will execute if something nasty happens. Calling it an irritating hole is quite an overstatement.
Believe me, a hell lot of exceptionally good code is written in languages without finally block. :)
The point of finally is to execute no matter if the try block was successfull or not.
function _try(callable $try, callable $catch, callable $finally = null)
{
if (is_null($finally))
{
$finally = $catch;
$catch = null;
}
try
{
$return = $try();
}
catch (Exception $rethrow)
{
if (isset($catch))
{
try
{
$catch($rethrow);
$rethrow = null;
}
catch (Exception $rethrow) { }
}
}
$finally();
if (isset($rethrow))
{
throw $rethrow;
}
return $return;
}
Call using closures. Second parameter, $catch, is optional. Examples:
_try(function ()
{
// try
}, function ($ex)
{
// catch ($ex)
}, function ()
{
// finally
});
_try(function ()
{
// try
}, function ()
{
// finally
});
Properly handles exceptions everywhere:
$try: Exception will be passed to $catch. $catch will run first, then $finally. If there is no $catch, exception will be rethrown after running $finally.
$catch: $finally will execute immediately. Exception will be rethrown after $finally completes.
$finally: Exception will break down the call stack unimpeded. Any other exceptions scheduled for rethrow will be discarded.
None: Return value from $try will be returned.
If anyone is still keeping track of this question, you might be interested in checking out the (brand new) RFC for a finally language feature in the PHP wiki. The author already seems to have working patches, and I'm sure the proposal would benefit from other developers' feedback.
I just finished writing a more elegant Try Catch Finally class which may be of use to you. There are some drawbacks but they can be worked around.
https://gist.github.com/Zeronights/5518445