On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 9:13 AM, Richard Quadling <rquadl...@gmail.com>wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I have an abstract base class (call it genericServiceHandler).
>
> I have concrete classes (FaxService, EmailService).
>
> The genericServiceHandler is watching for commands from an external
> source. The commands will always be one of a fixed set, no matter what
> the concrete service is. They are Pause, Continue, Start, Stop,
> Shutdown, PreShutdown.
>
> The genericServiceHandler has no need to process the commands. It only
> receives them and maybe dispatches them to the concrete class.
>
> The concrete class doesn't have to implement handlers for all of the
> commands, though, at a minimum, onStart() would be pretty much
> essential.
>
>
> My question relates to how should I code this.
>
> Should the base class have empty protected stubs to allowing the
> concrete class to override them via inheritance?
>
> Should I use __call() to capture the non-existing methods and use LSB
> to allow the concrete class to get the commands?
>
>
> I need to document this (phpdoc) to allow those designing the actual
> services know what to implement.
>
> The empty stubs certainly seems the easiest as I can block the scope
> to protected and include a full reasoning on when the method will be
> called (not all commands are applicable at all times).
>
> Using __call() can be documented using @method, but pretty much only a
> single line of description.
>
>
>
> What would you all do?
>
i would go w/ the stubbed out methods in the base class. if theres nothing
to do for the default implementation just use the 'null' pattern,
function pause() {}
__call is something of a last resort for me; i think it's best for proxies
or similar and thats about the most its useful for.
-nathan
