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MaplePHP - Data Transfer Object (DTO)

The MaplePHP DTO library simplifies working with structured data in PHP by wrapping it into objects. This allows easy traversal and transformation through a chainable interface, ensuring consistent, safe data handling and reducing the risk of direct data manipulation.

• Encapsulation: Encapsulates data within objects.
• Immutability: Ensures data integrity by preventing accidental modification.
• Validation: Facilitates data validation, ensuring the data conforms to specific types or formats.
• Data Transformation: Easily modify and format data using built-in methods.
• Low Coupling: Promotes separation of concerns, reducing dependencies between different parts of your code.
• Improved Readability: Makes code cleaner and easier to understand.
• Simplified Testing: DTOs are easier to test, as they contain only data and transformation logic.

Note: MaplePHP DTO also includes polyfill classes for Multibyte String and Iconv support.

Usage

The simplest way to work with the library is to start with the Traverse class, which provides powerful control over your data.

Accessing Nested Data

Each key in the array is accessible as an object property, and you can continue to drill down into nested arrays, maintaining consistency and safety.

Iterating Through Arrays

Built-in Data Handlers

MaplePHP DTO comes with powerful handlers for common data transformations. These handlers make it easy to manipulate strings, numbers, URIs, arrays, dates, and more.

String Handling Example

You can chain methods for string manipulation:

You can also apply transformations when iterating over an array:

More Examples

Here are more examples of using the DTO library’s built-in handlers for different types of data:

String Manipulation

Number Formatting

Date Formatting

Note: This guide is a work in progress, with more content to be added soon.

How It Works

The MaplePHP DTO library operates by wrapping data into objects that allow easy traversal and transformation using a chainable API. This structure allows for consistent and safe data handling, minimizing direct data manipulation risks.

Here’s how the key components of the library work:

1. Traverse Class

At the core of the library is the Traverse class. This class allows you to wrap an associative array (or any data structure) into an object, making each element of the array accessible as an object property.

• Key-to-Property Mapping: Each key in the array becomes an object property, and its value is transformed into a nested Traverse object if it's an array.
• Lazy Loading: The values are only accessed when needed, which allows you to traverse large data structures efficiently.

2. Handlers for Data Types

MaplePHP DTO uses specific handlers (such as Str, Num, DateTime, Uri, etc.) to manage different data types. These handlers provide methods to transform and validate the data.

• String Handling: The Str handler enables string-related operations, such as stripping tags, formatting case, and more.
• Number Handling: The Num handler allows numerical operations like rounding, formatting as currency, and converting to file sizes.
• Date and Time Handling: The DateTime handler provides methods for formatting and manipulating dates and times.

3. Immutability

When transformations are applied (e.g., strUcFirst() or numRound()), the library ensures immutability by returning a new Traverse instance with the modified data. This prevents accidental mutations of the original data.

4. Fetch Method for Arrays

The fetch() method simplifies working with arrays. Instead of manually looping through the array, you can use fetch() to iterate over the elements and apply transformations to each one.