[RFC]: Process parent properties in the ReflectionHydrator.

[ianef]

RFC

Q	A
Proposed Version(s)	next minor
BC Break?	No

Provide a means to hydrate private properties of parent classes.

Background

Currently the hydrator gets the class properties using ReflectionClass. This is fine if the class does not inherit from other classes, or if all the properties are public. However if the properties are private then only the instantiated class properties are enumerated. For Doctrine entities that are associations, and other cases using inherited getters and private properties, Doctrine returns a proxied class and not the original entity. When the hydrator enumerates the properties of the class it just gets the properties of the proxy and not the base entity.

Considerations

There will be no impact on current use of the hydrator as fetching parent properties is optional.

Proposal(s)

    /**
     * Extract values from an object
     *
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function extract(object $object, bool $includeParentProperties = false): array
    {
        $result = [];
        foreach (static::getReflProperties($object, $includeParentProperties) as $property) {
            $propertyName = $this->extractName($property->getName(), $object);
            if (! $this->getCompositeFilter()->filter($propertyName)) {
                continue;
            }

            $value                 = $property->getValue($object);
            $result[$propertyName] = $this->extractValue($propertyName, $value, $object);
        }

        return $result;
    }

    /**
     * Hydrate $object with the provided $data.
     *
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function hydrate(array $data, object $object, bool $includeParentProperties = false)
    {
        $reflProperties = static::getReflProperties($object, $includeParentProperties);
        foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
            $name = $this->hydrateName($key, $data);
            if (isset($reflProperties[$name])) {
                $reflProperties[$name]->setValue($object, $this->hydrateValue($name, $value, $data));
            }
        }
        return $object;
    }

    /**
     * Get a reflection properties for an object.
     * If $includeParentProperties is true, return return all parent properties as well.
     *
     * @return ReflectionProperty[]
     */
    protected static function getReflProperties(object $input, bool $includeParentProperties): array
    {
        $class = get_class($input);

        if (isset(static::$reflProperties[$class])) {
            return static::$reflProperties[$class];
        }

        static::$reflProperties[$class] = [];
        $reflClass = new ReflectionClass($class);

        do {
            foreach ($reflClass->getProperties() as $property) {
                $property->setAccessible(true);
                static::$reflProperties[$class][$property->getName()] = $property;
            }
        } while ($includeParentProperties === true && ($reflClass = $reflClass->getParentClass()) !== false);

        return static::$reflProperties[$class];
    }

[froschdesign]

@ianef

For Doctrine entities…

Have you checked the Doctrine integration project for hydrators?

[ianef]

@froschdesign Many thanks for pointing me to that, I've not seen that before and I'll try some tests with it. I assume that it deals with proxied entities but I'll find out soon enough.

I think my PR is still valid for the ReflectionHydrator.

[froschdesign]

Maybe this is also helpful:

https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-module.html
https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-orm-module.html

[ianef]

That's interesting @froschdesign, but my hydrator is used in Symfony projects and based on the Laminas hydrator as it's parent. I use it to hydrate model classes from Request objects (form data) which usually contain Doctrine entities and other DTOs.

I need t look at the Laminas framework in details to see what it offers.