In this article we will learn an advanced OOPS programming concept in PHP known as Method chaining. If you have worked on PHP frameworks like Zend, Magento or CakePHP, you might have noticed a very convinient style of accessing methods of different classes. [...] This type of programming technique is known as method chaining. If you are thinking how is it possible to perform this chaining, then don't worry. Today we will learn this fancy concept.

They create a simple class, a Person, and show the difference between calling several methods on the created object versus a method chained example that calls all three, making updates to the object itself ($this). There's also a bit more complicated example with three different classes in the mix.

It has been a while, but here is part 4 of the PHP Quiz series! A few questions to crack your brain about, or perhaps you know them all? Try them and find out! Also do read the idea behind these quizzes, here: The PHP Quiz series

In this quiz he tests your knowledge of class visibility, fluent method handling, class extension, strptime and a tricky "for" loop. Take the quiz and see how you do.

Sometimes if you have a complex class, which needs to be set up in a specific way: Perhaps it takes a lot of constructor arguments, or often requires calling some setters. [...] Sometimes if you have a complex class, which needs to be set up in a specific way: Perhaps it takes a lot of constructor arguments, or often requires calling some setters.

His example is a "message builder" wrapper that lets you specify the receiver, sender and message and inject them into a to() method call (with a fluent interface). He shows how to make sure that the object you need (the message object) is always complete.

Recently I've had the need to extend the interface further, among other things with JSON support. I've used code published by Nicolas Crovatti to do this.

His example shows how the script works to plot out some points for a table of stats. He follows this with an in-depth look at the different methods making up that fluent call (apply2Field, fill_ret, sum and plot). These make the array that can then be passed off to PHP, using json_encode to make an easy-consumable JSON message out of the results.

I've been working some with jQuery and Ruby lately, as you might know they both have very neat fluent interfaces for writing short and easily understandable code. Especially Ruby's array and string handling should be something that can be done in PHP so I started googling. [...] It's probably very possible that what I'm looking for is already part of some PHP framework or such but I didn't want to spend more time looking than being productive.

Based on some Ruby examples, he defines a set of functions that can be use to create these fluent interfaces to the common PHP variable types (contained in a class for easy use). The entire source can be downloded here.

In this article, I introduce a TDD related practice called Behaviour-Driven Development which has been gathering attention for over a year and gaining converts (like me!).

He briefly covers what BDD is and how it can be used to solidify code against issues that might come up down the road (and how it compares to test-driven development). Some sample code/tests are included to give you a better idea of how it all fits together - a set of scenarios for any given "story". True to the title, Padraic writes his tests around the construction of a Klingon Bird of Prey ship.

In his recent post Travis Swicegood is talking about the "Fluent API". This kind of API is very popular in scripting languages and I use it during my work with Zend Framework or jQuery projects. Another good example of such technique is Document Object Model API.

His examples show the method chaining that's the hallmark of fluent interfaces. Unfortunately, there's no good way to just make an object and call a fluent interface on it in PHP, so Alex suggests a simple little wrapper (that just returns the object) to make it easier.

As I noted in an earlier post, Solar how has classes to represent simple HTTP requests and responses.

The Solar_Http_Request functionality is only for making requests, but uses adapters to make it easier to swap out the connection method later on - plus it's fluent. He includes an example of it in action, calling a remote page with a GET, POST and a customized request (including special headers)

The other side of the equation, Solar_Http_Response allows you to set all of the response information manually (again, fluently) to make custom responses simple.

Fluent Interfaces are not a new programming construct. However, PHP developers have not been able to use them until PHP 5. Now with PHP 5 and the ability to directly dereference an object, PHP developers can build objects using fluent interfaces.

He starts off with a look at what they are and how (and why) they can be used in an application. He includes code example to help show how you would create an interface (makeNormal).

• this article by Mike Naberezny
• a post from Paul Jones
• a blog post from Martin Fowler

I am currently working on a ton of Web Services related things for the Zend Framework, one of my favorite, is the almost complete, Zend_Rest_Client. This is a replacement for Zend_Rest (as we're adding a server also).

Whilst it is almost impossible to emulate the PHP 5 SOAP extension, it is still possible to get a nice interface.

He gives some examples of its usage:

• creating a client with three lines of code
• showing off the "fluent API" of the component to make a REST request
• and a call normally, seperating the methods out into seperate lines