Add dynamically methods to an object

Question

Could you help me to find a solution to my problem?

I have a class that represents an entity (I will call it "Entity") I would like to dynamically add methods to my Entity according to different criteria.

For example:

If $_POST['TYPE'] == 'typeA', I would like to add following methods:

method1()

method2()

method3()

method4()

If $_POST['MODE'] == 'modeA', I would like to add following methods:

method5()

method6()

method7()

The problem is that there will be a lot of possible methods and and if I add all of them to my class, I'm affraid that my class becomes too big. I also would like to avoid editing my class every times a new situation arises.

I firstly thought about having a class by case but I have too many cases (about 5 criteria and for each one 6 or 7 possible different values) so about 50 or 60 different cases in full.

So what is the best solution to do that?

Should I add all possible methods to my class?

Should I use inheritance and create all possible kinds of objects (Type1Mode1Entity, Type1Mode2Entity, ...)?

Do you know a design pattern (decorator?) to do that?

Ben

Auris · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-25 09:25:44Z

3

Create separate classes for your cases that extend abstract class with common methods, then use a factory DP to load the required class

answered Aug 25, 2015 at 9:25

Auris

1,3291 gold badge9 silver badges18 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

benjamin.cohen-solal Over a year ago

Thank you Auris, I also hesitated to create a new class by case but I have a lot of different cases (about 8 different $_POST['type'], 5 different $_POST['mode'], and 3 or 4 other criteria and I must have about 50 or 60 cases in full) so if necessary, I will try to eliminate useless cases (if I can) but, and I hope you understand me, I would prefer another solution

Auris Over a year ago

you probably will need to abstract your structure quite a bit and split it in to groups of cases, so you are looking in to building a small library instead of one class to handle them all. But that is what OOP is all about. once you create your Entity structure (that for a case like yours will probably look more like a tree than a flat set of classes.) all you will have to do is write a factory class that returns a correct object. Adding methods to objects is not possible, you can only load objects in to objects, but that is avery messy approach and using a factory is a much cleaner approach.

benjamin.cohen-solal Over a year ago

Thank you for your answer, your explanation gave me an idea. I'm going to create a common entity with common methods and maybe different classes typed Mode1Module, Mode2Module, Type1Module, ... linked to my Entity and containing my methods

Auris Over a year ago

Hi, this could work. But the module linking could be a bit of a pain (all depends on how you write your loader. Anyways, glad I could help in some way.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Add dynamically methods to an object

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related