Posts published in “Observer”

Observer is a behavioral design pattern that allows some objects to notify other objects about changes in their state.

PHP has several built-in interfaces (SplSubject, SplObserver) that can be used to make your implementations of the Observer pattern compatible with the rest of the PHP code.

Sample Code:

(Source from https://refactoring.guru/design-patterns/observer/php/example)

<?php

namespace RefactoringGuru\Observer\Conceptual;

/**
 * PHP has a couple of built-in interfaces related to the Observer pattern.
 *
 * Here's what the Subject interface looks like:
 *
 * @link http://php.net/manual/en/class.splsubject.php
 *
 *     interface SplSubject
 *     {
 *         // Attach an observer to the subject.
 *         public function attach(SplObserver $observer);
 *
 *         // Detach an observer from the subject.
 *         public function detach(SplObserver $observer);
 *
 *         // Notify all observers about an event.
 *         public function notify();
 *     }
 *
 * There's also a built-in interface for Observers:
 *
 * @link http://php.net/manual/en/class.splobserver.php
 *
 *     interface SplObserver
 *     {
 *         public function update(SplSubject $subject);
 *     }
 */

/**
 * The Subject owns some important state and notifies observers when the state
 * changes.
 */
class Subject implements \SplSubject
{
    /**
     * @var int For the sake of simplicity, the Subject's state, essential to
     * all subscribers, is stored in this variable.
     */
    public $state;

    /**
     * @var \SplObjectStorage List of subscribers. In real life, the list of
     * subscribers can be stored more comprehensively (categorized by event
     * type, etc.).
     */
    private $observers;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->observers = new \SplObjectStorage();
    }

    /**
     * The subscription management methods.
     */
    public function attach(\SplObserver $observer): void
    {
        echo "Subject: Attached an observer.\n";
        $this->observers->attach($observer);
    }

    public function detach(\SplObserver $observer): void
    {
        $this->observers->detach($observer);
        echo "Subject: Detached an observer.\n";
    }

    /**
     * Trigger an update in each subscriber.
     */
    public function notify(): void
    {
        echo "Subject: Notifying observers...\n";
        foreach ($this->observers as $observer) {
            $observer->update($this);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Usually, the subscription logic is only a fraction of what a Subject can
     * really do. Subjects commonly hold some important business logic, that
     * triggers a notification method whenever something important is about to
     * happen (or after it).
     */
    public function someBusinessLogic(): void
    {
        echo "\nSubject: I'm doing something important.\n";
        $this->state = rand(0, 10);

        echo "Subject: My state has just changed to: {$this->state}\n";
        $this->notify();
    }
}

/**
 * Concrete Observers react to the updates issued by the Subject they had been
 * attached to.
 */
class ConcreteObserverA implements \SplObserver
{
    public function update(\SplSubject $subject): void
    {
        if ($subject->state < 3) {
            echo "ConcreteObserverA: Reacted to the event.\n";
        }
    }
}

class ConcreteObserverB implements \SplObserver
{
    public function update(\SplSubject $subject): void
    {
        if ($subject->state == 0 || $subject->state >= 2) {
            echo "ConcreteObserverB: Reacted to the event.\n";
        }
    }
}

/**
 * The client code.
 */

$subject = new Subject();

$o1 = new ConcreteObserverA();
$subject->attach($o1);

$o2 = new ConcreteObserverB();
$subject->attach($o2);

$subject->someBusinessLogic();
$subject->someBusinessLogic();

$subject->detach($o2);

$subject->someBusinessLogic();

Output:

Subject: Attached an observer.
Subject: Attached an observer.

Subject: I'm doing something important.
Subject: My state has just changed to: 2
Subject: Notifying observers...
ConcreteObserverA: Reacted to the event.
ConcreteObserverB: Reacted to the event.

Subject: I'm doing something important.
Subject: My state has just changed to: 4
Subject: Notifying observers...
ConcreteObserverB: Reacted to the event.
Subject: Detached an observer.

Subject: I'm doing something important.
Subject: My state has just changed to: 1
Subject: Notifying observers...
ConcreteObserverA: Reacted to the event.