sahanh/simpledto

Simple DTO object to move data

SimpleDTO

Simple DTO object to move data. Requires PHP 5.4, _(*1)

Practical Usage

When returning complex data, instead of returning an array DTOs can be returned., _(*2)

class UserService
{
    public function getUsers()
    {
        $rows = $this->db->users->get();
        return DTO::make($rows);
    }
}

View or Controllers can use DTO objects to access data. No need to worry about undefined index errors when using get method., _(*3)

{{ $data->get('name') }}

@foreach($data->get('cars') as $car)
    <h1>{{ $car }}</h1>
@endforeach

Installing

Package can be installed via composer., _(*4)

Install Composer

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

Next, update your project's composer.json file to include EZCash:

{
    "require": {
        "sahanh/simpledto": "~1.0"
    }
}

Making DTO Object

use SH\SimpleDTO\DTO;

$raw = [
    'id'      => 1,
    'name'    => 'John Doe',
    'email'   => 'john@doe.com',
    'address' => [
        'street' => '123 Main St.',
        'city'   => 'Wind'
    ],
    'cars'  => [
        'BMW-7',
        'Toyota Supra',
        'Nissan GT',
        'Jaguar'
    ]
];

//pass an array or stdClass objects
$dto = DTO::make($raw);

Accessing Data

//accessing properties
echo $dto->name; //John Doe
echo $dto->address->city; //Wind

//accessing as an array
echo $dto['name']; //John Doe
echo $dto["address"]["city"] //Wind

Using dot-notation

DTO's data can be accessed using get method, get method accept . for nested elements, _(*5)

echo $dto->get('address.city');

One advantage of get is, data can be accessed without making sure if they exist or not., _(*6)

//returns NULL without errors, (no undefined index errors like in arrays)
$dto->get('address.country');

Iterating

For every nested array element data new DTO object will be created on retrival, and DTO object implements IteratorAggregate inteface., _(*7)

foreach ($dto->cars as $car) {
    echo $car;
}

//since `$dto->cars` is an array, `$dto->cars` will be returning another DTO object.
$cars = $dto->cars;
echo $cars->get(0); //accessing get() of DTO object

JSON Serializing

Pass the DTO object to json_encode and get the data in json, _(*8)

echo json_encode($dto);

Write Protected

Data inside a DTO object cannot be modified once created making it perfect to move around., _(*9)

//RuntimeException - 'Data cannot be modified'
$dto->new_value   = 'Some value';
$dto['new_value'] = 'Some value';

Credits: The library uses illuminate/helpers package, _(*10)