Proposal: ArrayAccess for DefaultEntity

[jonasdekeukelaere]

This is a proposal, with just a quick implementation.

Instead of using a toArray() function for an entity, why not implement the ArrayAccess interface?

Still todo:

• use array access where toArray is now used
• remove toArray()

Usage:

$this->item = User::get($id);

Spoon::dump(isset($this->item['id'])); // exists
Spoon::dump($this->item['id']); // get
$this->item['id'] = 1; // set
unset($this->item['id']); // unset

[turanct]

The problem with array access is that it's "magic". Why not just use the getter/setter methods? It's only slightly more verbose and gives you cleaner error handling and IDE autocompletion as a bonus...

[jonasdekeukelaere]

But will take away the step where we do toArray() if we send an object to the template, or when we will save the object.

It is particularly annoying when you send an array of objects to the template. Like

// will not work
$users = User::getAll();
$this->tpl->assign('users', $users);

// needs to be
$users = User::getAll();
$usersArray = array();
foreach ($users as $user) {
  /** @var User $user */
  $usersArray[] = $suser->toArray();
}

But this probably will need some more code, as in the template, the "first" and "last" will be set and raise an error (because setFirst() and setLast() don't exist).