PHP IDE :: NuSphere Forums :: View topic - How to use type hints for "fluent interfaces"?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:49 am

Hi,

i'm trying to write some code using "fluent interface" model. It means that every class method returns $this after comletion, so the programmer can write code like this:

Code:

$value = Gui::GetControl('name')->setValue('test1')->getValue();

Code autocompletion works fine if I specify type of returning variable, for example:

Code:

/**
* Method 1
*
* @return GuiControl GUI object
*/

Unfortunately there is a problem with class inheritance: for phpED "return $this;" in method of derived class points to the type of base class rather than derived one. Is there any way to tell phpED that I want him to guess the current class type? I do not wish to write unique phpDoc comments regarding type of returned object for every derived class. I think this functionality would be fine:

Code:

/**
* Method 1
*
* @return this GUI object
*/

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:25 am

IMHO, any method that returns $this should automatically be picked up as the object the method was called from. It can be nothing else...

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:06 am

Quote:

IMHO, any method that returns $this should automatically be picked up as the object the method was called from. It can be nothing else...[/qote]Yes, thats true. I think this shouldn't be a problem for phpEd to do it. The problem is that writting "this" as returned data type breaks compatibility with phpDoc specification, so maybe this is the main reason why phpEd does not support fluent interfaces already.

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:20 am

Situation don't change still?

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 3:53 am

As far as I'm aware PHPDoc is the only way to get it to work in PhpED.

Code:

<?php

class App
{
/**
* @return App
*/
function GetThis($A = 0)
{
echo $A;
return $this;
}
/**
* @return App
*/
function OK()
{
echo 'OK';
return $this;
}
}
$Ap = new App();
$Ap->GetThis(2)->OK();
$Ap->GetThis()->

?>

I do sometimes use a competitor product to PhpED and that does provide code completion based on the actual return value, so it would be nice if PhpED did it as well.

It would be very useful for working with API's such as with Zend framework and Magento, where PHPDoc is not always fully utilised.

Even if full type tracking wasn't implemented, checking for a simple return $this would probably be straight-forward.

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 2:37 am

in 6233 your sample works fine without any phpdocs

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:06 am

Brilliant

That's going to make Magento a lot easier