Wade Arnold

I started working on a project this week that extensively uses ArrayCollection’s and I found that ZendAmf could use a couple additions in order to have some utilities for working with ArrayCollections in PHP. The new feature relies heavily on PHP’s SPL and specifically Countable, ArrayAccess, and IteratorAggregate all of which require PHP 5.2.3 or greater.

The following file can be added to your Zend Amf project to play with some of these features. Please let me know if there is anything else that I should add before it is added in the next release. Please post feedback to the blog or directly to the Zend Framework feature request.

Alpha Zend_Amf_Value_Messaging_ArrayCollection

To create an ArrayCollection

$this->_data[] = array('foo' => 'foo1', 'bar' => 'bar1');
$this->_data[] = array('foo' => 'foo2', 'bar' => 'bar2');
$this->_arrayCollection = new Zend_Amf_Value_Messaging_ArrayCollectionTwo($this->_data);

To Create an ArrayCollection from a Zend_Db_Table_row

$table = new Bugs();

$select = $table->select();
$select->where('bug_status = ?', 'NEW');

$rows = $table->fetchAll($select);
$this->_arrayCollection = new Zend_Amf_Value_Messaging_ArrayCollectionTwo($rows);

To alter an element of an ArrayCollection

$this->_arrayCollection = new Zend_Amf_Value_Messaging_ArrayCollection($this->_data);
$total = count($this->_arrayCollection);
echo($total); // outputs 2

To get the size of the array collection

to iterate through the ArrayCollection

$count = 0;
foreach($this->_arrayCollection as $row) {
    $count++;
}
$this->assertEquals(2, $count);

To manipulate an ArrayCollection based on keys.

$this->_arrayCollection = new Zend_Amf_Value_Messaging_ArrayCollection($this->_data);

// See if the offset key exists
$boolean = $this->_arrayCollection->offsetExists(1);

// Alter or add the row at they key offset of 1
$data = array('fooSet' => 'fooSet2', 'barSet' => 'barSet2');
$this->_arrayCollection->offsetSet(1,$data);

// Remove the row at the offset key of 3
$this->_arrayCollection->offsetUnset(3);

// Get the row at the offset 6
$row = $this->_arrayCollection->offsetGet(6);

To change an ArrayCollection to an Array

$standardArray = iterator_to_array($this->_arrayCollection);

To append another row to an ArrayCollection

$this->_arrayCollection->append(array('kung' => 'foo', 'Bruce' => 'Lee'));

– Update –
From a PHP developers perspective this makes little since. I am asking that you comment why you like the new ArrayCollection. I am creating something that can already be done with an array in PHP and then just wrap it into a stub ArrayCollection class. The two things that action script does not do with an array is:

it can not handle sparse array’s. {1=> one, 2=>two, 4=>four} this is a sparse array and Action Script will try and pad the array or just make it an object.

Actionscript can not use strings as the key in the array so it just uses an object. If you want a numerically keyed array of objects they call it an ArrayCollection.

Both of these concepts are handled in PHP as just an Array. So there is no reason that you could not use the Array and then pass the array into a simple ArrayCollection class for it to be parsed back to flex. So when you see the new ArrayCollection class what are the use cases that you feel you would use the class for? Is it just a convenience tool or does it add complexity that does not need to exists?

ActionScript 3, Flash Platform, Zend_Amf