README

Interfaces, traits and classes for handling item collections, similar to Enums and with useful getter methods.

In essence, it allows creating collections like this with a minimum of code:

$basil = Herbs::getInstance()->getByID(Herbs::BASIL);

echo $basil->getID(); // basil
echo $basil->getName(); // Basil

foreach(Herbs::getInstance()->getAll() as $herb) {
    echo $herb->getName();
}

This is part of the Application Utils ecology.

The Principle

The basic principle is to have a collection class for a data type, which knows all the possible values for that type, and a record class that represents a single value of that type.

The collections and records are distinguished by the return type of their getID() method.

Currently, only string and integer types are supported.

Implementation

There are two ways to implement collections:

By extending the abstract base classes (e.g. BaseStringPrimaryCollection)
By implementing the interface and trait (e.g. StringPrimaryCollectionTrait)

The second way is useful when working with classes that already extend another class.

The records have no abstract base class, only an interface that contains the getID() method with the relevant return type.

Usage

There are example implementations of the string and integer collections in the unit test classes:

Items with an integer-based ID

Items with a string-based ID

Dynamic class loading

This specialized collection loads all classes from a folder that match a given interface or class name, instantiates them, and gives access to the resulting objects.

Fueled by AppUtils' ClassHelper class loading mechanism, it is a powerful, fire-and-forget tool that helps with building dynamic applications.

Events

Items in a collection are initialized on demand. To be able to react to this, the collections offer the onItemsInitialized() method, which can be used to register a listener that is called when the items are initialized.

use AppUtils\Collections\Events\ItemsInitializedEvent;use AppUtilsTestClasses\StringPrimaryCollectionImpl;

$collection = new StringPrimaryCollectionImpl();

// Register listeners before accessing the items
$collection->onItemsInitialized(function(ItemsInitializedEvent $event) : void {
    // Do something
});

$collection->getAll(); // This, for example, will trigger the event

mistralys / application-utils-collections

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