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The Object Transformer

How to install the package?

The package can be installed via Composer:

It requires at least PHP 8, but no other extensions or packages.

How to use the Object Transformer?

First, at least one implementation of the TransformerInterface has to be created.

The input- and output class names are used to register the supported transformations in the TransformationMediator.

The TransformationMediator requires an iterable of TransfromerInterface-implementing objects (at least one).

Because the TransformerInterface objects are processed at the first call of the transform method of the TransformationMediator, the TranformationMediator (or the TransformationMediatorInterface) can be passed as constructor argument to the transformer (otherwise, this could lead to endless circle calls).

After everything is prepared, the transform method can be used.

The transform method of the TransformationMediator can handle any object. If the passed object isn't a TransformationEnvelope, it will be wrapped with one. So if you don't want to use any stamps (see below), just pass the ordinary object. But be aware, that you will always receive a TransformationEnvelope in your implementations of TransformerInterface?.

What do you mean with "stamp"?

The envelope and stamp system is inspired, but not identical to the system used by the Symfony messenger component. Every object that is passed to the transform method of the TransformationMediator is wrapped with an TransformationEnvelope (if it's not already one).

Like a real envelope, the TransformationEnvelope can carry stamps. Stamps have two tasks:

1. pass data to the transform method of the TransformerInterface implementation
2. provide data that can be used during processing in the TransformationMediator

All stamps have to implement the TransformationStampInterface and provide a priority.

The main difference to the Symfony messenger component is, that the envelope can only hold one stamp per type. If two or more stamps of the same type are passed to the envelope, a later stamp will overwrite an earlier one, if it's priority is higher.

Looping data through the mediator

To loop data through the mediator to the transformer, any custom stamp can be passed to the envelope. They won't be touched during processing and are accessible via the envelope:

Data processed by the mediator

All implementations of the TransformationStampInterface provided by this package are used inside the mediator. After there usage they are removed from the envelope and are not accessible in the TransformerInface implementation.

InputClassStamp

Because of its internal data flow, the passed input object has to be of the exact same class that was defined as input in the supportedTransformations method of the factory.

This could lead to problems with packages like Doctrine. Doctrine creates proxy classes for managed entities, that can be used just like the Entity itself. However, the TransformationMediator would not find a matching transformer and throw an exception, because the exact class of the proxy object is not registered for transformation.

That's where the InputClassStamp comes into play. Let's define some objects first.

The following lines would lead to an UnsupportedInputOutputTypes exception.

With the InputClassStamp it's working.

Why does this package exist?

A common pattern I stumbled across in my projects is to map data between different objects types like DTOs and Entities.

The mapping is often very simple: the value of the DTO (Data Transfer Object) property is the same as the property of the Entity (and vice versa). However, things get more complicated if value objects are used (which I strongly recommend). New objects has to be created and the few lines of code get more and more complex.

In my projects, this often lead to the creation of factory classes, that handle the object transformation and contain as little business logic as possible. But, as a class should only serve a single purpose, there can be a lot of such factories. When engineering more complex entities, the factories sometimes depend on each other. That makes the DI (Dependency Injection) or Singleton usage quite a mess.

That's where the object transformer comes into play: the mediator is sufficient to do all the transformations needed.

How does the Object Transformer work?

A factory or any other class that should be used by the TransformationMediator has to implement the TransformerInterface.

All classes that implement the interface (and are passed to the mediator) provide an array of supported transformations via the static supportedTransformations method. The array contains an array for every supported transformation. Every one of these inner arrays requires an input and an ouput key, which both represent existing classes.

When the transform method of the TransformationMediator is first called, it will populate it's internal transformer registry. For performance reasons every supported transformation is registered with it's input and output class. This way, the associations can be used to find a responsible transformer.

Contributing

I am really happy that the software developer community loves Open Source, like I do! ♥

That's why I appreciate every issue that is opened (preferably constructive) and every pull request that provides other or even better code to this package.

You are all breathtaking!