[Sw00p]

Hi all!
I've been using Yii as my second framework for a couple of years and I like it. But I have annoying question: why, why you guys use private scope in framework classes instead of protected?! It's craziness, it makes terrible extending of the base functionality, I have to copy your base classes to extend their functionality, not to simply extend them. Is there any explanation of this?

Sincerely,
Yuriy

[ololo]

Quote

Having a few well defined extension points force the developer to extend your library the right way instead of hacking your code.

© Fabien Potencier - Pragmatism over Theory: Protected vs Private - here are some thoughts on the subject

[andy_s]

ololo, on 09 January 2012 - 02:03 PM, said:

© Fabien Potencier - Pragmatism over Theory: Protected vs Private - here are some thoughts on the subject

Hah, I just wanted to mention that article too. But actually in Yii classes there are no "too many" private methods, at least I didn't face any big problems extending core classes. And I agree making everything public/protected can make more problems for developers, because there are no guarantees these methods won't change in the future.

More thoughts on the subject: http://en.wikipedia....ver_inheritance

[Sw00p]

Thank you guys! It's right and usefull thoughts, but there is code like

public function getViewPath($checkTheme=false)
{
	$className=get_class($this);
	if(isset(self::$_viewPaths[$className]))
		return self::$_viewPaths[$className];
	else
	{
		if($checkTheme && ($theme=Yii::app()->getTheme())!==null)
		{
			$path=$theme->getViewPath().DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
			if(strpos($className,'\\')!==false) // namespaced class
				$path.=str_replace('\\','_',ltrim($className,'\\'));
			else
				$path.=$className;
			if(is_dir($path))
				return self::$_viewPaths[$className]=$path;
		}
		$class=new ReflectionClass($className);
		return self::$_viewPaths[$className]=dirname($class->getFileName()).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'views';
	}
}

Directory name is hardcoded here, to use another directory name (not 'views') I should rewrite method in child class, but there are private properties... Yes, I can simply replace 'view' in result, but this is not good idea. Can you change my opinion?

[Weavora Team]

andy_s, on 09 January 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

... But actually in Yii classes there are no "too many" private methods, at least I didn't face any big problems extending core classes.

Yeah, but Yii has many private properties... That's a major issue in my practice, because for example you can't just copy-paste method if it use private properties, or extend it.. Or whatever you need...

I think just really low-level things should be encapsulated. All other should be protected. Of course some methods could be changed, but could be not. If developer call inherit protected method - he should know about the risk.