FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable

FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable is a simple-to-use PHP component that imposes a total ordering on objects.

Introduction

This component is inspired by the following three artifacts of the Java programming language.

The interface java.lang.Comparable of the Java Platform Standard Edition (SE).
The interface java.util.Comparator of the Java Platform SE.
The method org.apache.commons.lang3.ObjectUtils.compare of the Apache Commons Lang API:

FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable consists of two artifacts:

The interface FlorianWolters\Component\Core\ComparableInterface: Imposes a total ordering on the objects of each class that implements it.
The static class FlorianWolters\Component\Core\ComparableUtils: Offers comparison operations that impose a total ordering on objects.

Features

The static method FlorianWolters\Component\Core\ComparableUtils::compare is null-safe. A client can determine if null is considered greater than a non-null value or if null is considered less than a non-null value.
Artifacts tested with both static and dynamic test procedures:
- Dynamic component tests (unit tests) implemented using PHPUnit.
- Static code analysis performed using the following tools:
  - PHP_CodeSniffer: Style Checker
  - PHP Mess Detector (PHPMD): Code Analyzer
  - phpcpd: Copy/Paste Detector (CPD)
  - phpdcd: Dead Code Detector (DCD)
Installable via Composer or the PEAR command line installer:
- Provides a Packagist package which can be installed using the dependency manager Composer.
  
  Click here for the package on Packagist.
- Provides a PEAR package which can be installed using the package manager PEAR installer.
  
  Click here for the PEAR channel.
Provides a complete Application Programming Interface (API) documentation generated with the documentation generator ApiGen.

Click here for the current API documentation.
Follows the PSR-0 requirements for autoloader interoperability.
Follows the PSR-1 basic coding style guide.
Follows the PSR-2 coding style guide.
Follows the Semantic Versioning Specification (SemVer) 2.0.0-rc.1.

Requirements

PHP >= 5.4

Usage

The best documentation for FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable are the unit tests, which are shipped in the package. You will find them installed into your PEAR repository, which on Linux systems is normally /usr/share/php/test.

Installation

Local Installation

FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable should be installed using the dependency manager Composer. Composer can be installed with PHP.

php -r "eval('?>'.file_get_contents('http://getcomposer.org/installer'));"

This will just check a few PHP settings and then download composer.phar to your working directory. This file is the Composer binary. It is a PHAR (PHP archive), which is an archive format for PHP which can be run on the command line, amongst other things.

Next, run the install command to resolve and download dependencies:

php composer.phar install

System-Wide Installation

FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable should be installed using the PEAR installer. This installer is the PHP community's de-facto standard for installing PHP components.

pear channel-discover pear.florianwolters.de
pear install --alldeps fw/Comparable

As A Dependency On Your Component

Composer

If you are creating a component that relies on FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable, please make sure that you add FlorianWolters\Component\Core\Comparable to your component's composer.json file:

{
    "require": {
        "florianwolters/component-core-comparable": "0.2.*"
    }
}

PEAR

<dependencies>
  <required>
    <package>
      <name>Comparable</name>
      <channel>pear.florianwolters.de</channel>
      <min>0.2.0</min>
      <max>0.2.99</max>
    </package>
  </required>
</dependencies>

Development Environment

If you want to patch or enhance this component, you will need to create a suitable development environment. The easiest way to do that is to install phix4componentdev:

# phix4componentdev
pear channel-discover pear.phix-project.org
pear install phix/phix4componentdev

You can then clone the Git repository:

# PHP-Component-Core-Comparable
git clone http://github.com/FlorianWolters/PHP-Component-Core-Comparable

Then, install a local copy of this component's dependencies to complete the development environment:

# build vendor/ folder
phing build-vendor

To make life easier for you, common tasks (such as running unit tests, generating code review analytics, and creating the PEAR package) have been automated using phing. You'll find the automated steps inside the build.xml file that ships with the component.

Run the command phing in the component's top-level folder to see the full list of available automated tasks.

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.txt.