[SOLVED] getAllProperties in an abstract class

[LostInTheWoods]

Hi,

 

First post, so be nice 

 

All my objects have getters and setters, and a method called getAllProperties() that loops through the objects properties and returns them in an array, like so:

 

public function getAllProperties() {
$all = array();
foreach($this as $var => $value) {
	$all[$var] = $value;
}
return $all;
}

 

But to avoid lots of repetition I thought I would put this method in an abstract class so all my objects that extend the abstract class can use the method. But no. For some reason it is not possible to loop over the properties of the (non abstract) object. Other stuff works, like calling a getter, but no the looping. Any ideas?

 

Many Thanks,

LITW 

 

 

[knowj]

Have you looked at the permissions of the items?

 

Just out of curiosity what context would you need to use this method?

[LostInTheWoods]

The properties are private. But my thought was that the method is being inherited, and it can be used as if it was in the object class.

 

I use this method mainly for debugging, and my thought was I could just go to the abstract class at the end of development and remove it, rather than hunting through my objects.

[knowj]

It may be worth trying a test with the items set to public. PHP can sometimes do some strange things. One i recently found is that you cannot have a private __destruct(), it results in a fatal error.

 

I was struggling to figure out what the method would be used for. Must come in handy for debugging.

[LostInTheWoods]

It may be worth trying a test with the items set to public. PHP can sometimes do some strange things.

 

Now you said that a penny dropped. I changed the private to protected and it works. Which kind of makes sense.... I think. So the method is being 'run' from the abstract class so it needs to have access to the properties... so protected works (as does of course public does too).

[redbullmarky]

correct. to clarify: private properties (and methods) are only accessible to the class they're defined. to access properties in parent/child classes, they will need to be set to at least protected. to access them from an independent class/object, they'd need to be public.

[448191]

You could use reflection to iterate over all methods, adding ones that start with 'get', or if that wont work, you could iterate over all properties, and assemble the method name from it.

[448191]

Here's an example. It doesn't include the parent's properties if they are private though. Alternatively, you can use getMethods(), but then you might get some false positives. Maybe now still though.

 

In all, I just don't think it is a very good idea. Here's it anyway, if you insist on using it, go ahead.

 

<?php
abstract class Foo
{
protected $_meh; 
protected $_blah;

public function getMeh()
{
	return $this->_meh;
}

public function getBlah()
{
	return $this->_blah;
}

public function getAllProperties() 
{
	$all = array();

	$refl = new ReflectionObject($this);

	foreach($refl->getProperties() as $prop) 
	{
		$getter = 'get' . ucfirst(!$prop->isPublic()? substr($prop->getName(), 1) : $prop->getName());

		if(method_exists($this, $getter))
		{
			$all[$prop->getName()] = call_user_func(array($this, $getter));
		}
	}
	return $all;
}
}
class FooBar extends Foo
{
private $_ugh;
private $_bah;

public function getUgh()
{
	return $this->_ugh;
}

public function getBah()
{
	return $this->_bah;
}
}

$foobar = new FooBar();
var_dump($foobar->getAllProperties());
?>

[LostInTheWoods]

Well, thanks for that. First question on this forum and I get a example solution!

 

Thanks again,

LITW