Containers

There are two relevant traits in the Container mechanics. Your “container” object should implement ContainerTrait and your child objects should implement TrackableTrait (if not, the $owner/$elements links will not be established)

If both parent and child implement AppScopeTrait then the property of AppScopeTrait::app will be copied from parent to the child also.

If your child implements InitializerTrait then the method InitializerTrait::init will also be invoked after linking is done.

You will be able to use ContainerTrait::getElement() to access elements inside container:

$object->add(new AnoterObject(), 'test');
$anotherObject = $object->getElement('test');

If you additionally use TrackableTrait together with NameTrait then your objects also receive unique “name”. From example above:

  • $object->name == “app_object_4”
  • $anotherObject->name == “app_object_4_test”

Name Trait

trait NameTrait

Name trait only adds the ‘name’ property. Normally you don’t have to use it because TrackableTrait automatically inherits this trait. Due to issues with PHP5 if both ContainerTrait and TrackableTrait are using NameTrait and then both applied on the object, the clash results in “strict warning”. To avoid this, apply NameTrait on Containers only if you are NOT using TrackableTrait.

Properties

property NameTrait::$name

Name of the object.

Methods

None

CollectionTrait

trait CollectionTrait

This trait makes it possible for you to add child objects into your object, but unlike “ContainerTrait” you can use multiple collections stored as different array properties.

This class does not offer automatic naming, so if you try to add another element with same name, it will result in exception.

Example:

class Form
{
    use Core\CollectionTrait;

    protected $fields = [];

    public function addField(string $name, $seed = [])
    {
        $seed = Factory::mergeSeeds($seed, [FieldMock::class]);

        $field = Factory::factory($seed, ['name' => $name]);

        return $this->_addIntoCollection($name, $field, 'fields');
    }

    public function hasField(string $name): bool
    {
        return $this->_hasInCollection($name, 'fields');
    }

    public function getField(string $name)
    {
        return $this->_getFromCollection($name, 'fields');
    }

    public function removeField(string $name)
    {
        $this->_removeFromCollection($name, 'fields');
    }
}

Methods

CollectionTrait::_addIntoCollection(string $name, object $object, string $collection)

Adds a new element into collection:

public function addField(string $name, $seed = [])
{
    $field = Factory::factory($seed);

    return $this->_addIntoCollection($name, $field, 'fields');
}

Factory usage is optional but would allow you to pass seed into addField()

CollectionTrait::_removeFromCollection(string $name, string $collection)

Remove element with a given name from collection.

CollectionTrait::_hasInCollection(string $name, string $collection)

Return object if it exits in collection and false otherwise

CollectionTrait::_getFromCollection(string $name, string $collection)

Same as _hasInCollection but throws exception if element is not found

CollectionTrait::_shortenMl($string $ownerName, string $itemShortName)

Implements name shortening

Shortening is identical to :php:meth::ContainerTrait::_shorten.

Your object can this train together with ContainerTrait. As per June 2019 ATK maintainers agreed to gradually refactor ATK Data to use CollectionTrait for fields, relations, actions.

Container Trait

trait ContainerTrait

If you want your framework to keep track of relationships between objects by implementing containers, you can use ContainerTrait. Example:

class MyContainer extends OtherClass
{
    use Atk4\Core\ContainerTrait;

    public function add(object $obq, $args = []): object
    {
        $this->_addContainer($obj, is_string($args) ? ['name' => $args] : $args);

        return $obj;
    }
}

class MyItem
{
    use Atk4\Core\TrackableTrait;
    use Atk4\Core\NameTrait;
}

Now the instances of MyItem can be added to instances of MyContainer
and can keep track::

$parent = new MyContainer();
$parent->name = 'foo';
$parent->add(new MyItem(), 'child1');
$parent->add(new MyItem());

echo $parent->getElement('child1')->name;
// foo_child1

if ($parent->hasElement('child1')) {
    $parent->removeElement('child1');
}

foreach ($parent as $child) {
    $child->doSomething();
}

Child object names will be derived from the parent name.

Properties

property ContainerTrait::$elements

Contains a list of objects that have been “added” into the current container. The key is a “shot_name” of the child. The actual link to the element will be only present if child uses both TrackableTrait and NameTrait traits, otherwise the value of array key will be “true”.

Methods

ContainerTrait::add($obj, $args = [])

If you are using ContainerTrait only, then you can safely use this add() method. If you are also using factory, or initializer then redefine add() and call _addContainer, _addFactory,.

ContainerTrait::_addContainer(object $element, array $args) → void

Add element into container. Normally you should create a method add() inside your class that will execute this method. Because multiple traits will want to contribute to your add() method, you should see sample implementation in Object::add.

Your minimum code should be:

public function add(object $obj, $args = []): object
{
    $this->_addContainer($obj, is_string($args) ? ['name' => $args] : $args);

    return $obj;
}

$args be in few forms:

$args = ['child_name'];
$args = 'child_name';
$args = ['child_name', 'db' => $mydb];
$args = ['name' => 'child_name']; // obsolete, backward-compatible

Method will return the object. Will throw exception if child with same name already exist.

ContainerTrait::removeElement($shortName)

Will remove element from $elements. You can pass either shortName or the object itself. This will be called if TrackableTrait::destroy is called.

ContainerTrait::_shorten($string $ownerName, string $itemShortName)

Given the long owner name and short child name, this method will attempt to shorten the length of your children. The reason for shortening a name is to impose reasonable limits on overly long names. Name can be used as key in the GET argument or form field, so for a longer names they will be shortened.

This method will only be used if current object has AppScope, since the application is responsible for keeping shortenings.

ContainerTrait::getElement($shortName)

Given a short-name of the element, will return the object. Throws exception if object with such shortName does not exist.

ContainerTrait::hasElement($shortName)

Given a short-name of the element, will return true if object with such shortName exists, otherwise false.

ContainerTrait::_uniqueElementName()

Internal method to create unique name for an element.

Trackable Trait

trait TrackableTrait

Trackable trait implements a few fields for the object that will maintain it’s relationship with the owner (parent).

When name is set for container, then all children will derive their names of the parent.

  • Parent: foo
  • Child: foo_child1

The name will be unique within this container.

Properties

property TrackableTrait::$owner

Will point to object which has add()ed this object. If multiple objects have added this object, then this will point to the most recent one.

property TrackableTrait::$shortName

When you add item into the owner, the “shortName” will contain short name of this item.

Methods

TrackableTrait::getDesiredName()

Normally object will try to be named after it’s class, if the name is omitted. You can override this method to implement a different mechanics.

If you pass ‘desired_name’ => ‘heh’ to a constructor, then it will affect the preferred name returned by this method. Unlike ‘name’ => ‘heh’ it won’t fail if another element with this name exists, but will add ‘_2’ postfix.

TrackableTrait::destroy()

If object owner is set, then this will remove object from it’s owner elements reducing number of links to the object. Normally PHP’s garbage collector should remove object as soon as number of links is zero.