README

"That" Philosophy

Lightweight proxy "that" provides ability to create a callable for an object during runtime.

The idea of "that" is to reference the way how you usually create a callable for particular object.

$this->method(...) # For particular object

that()->method(...) # For an expected object which is about to be accessed during the loop

Concept

How often did you need to perform array_map() like this?

array_map(
    static function (MyClass $object): string {
        return $object->method();
    },
    $objects,
);

array_map(
    static fn (MyClass $object): string => $object->method(),
    $objects,
);

array_map(
    static fn (MyClass $object): string => $object->method($arg1, $arg2),
    $objects,
);

array_map(
    static fn (MyClass $object): string => $object->property,
    $objects,
);

Unfortunately, even though we can create objects like [$this, 'method'], but we can't access the object during iteration for runtime (e.g. array_map(), array_filter() etc.)

Lightweight proxy "that" brings this handy feature:

array_map(
    that()->method(...), # static fn (MyClass $object): string => $object->method()
    $objects,
);

array_map(
    that()->withArgs($arg1, $arg2)->method(...), # static fn (MyClass $object): string => $object->method($arg1, $arg2),
    $objects,
);

array_map(
    that()->property, # static fn (MyClass $object): string => $object->property
    $objects,
);

Usage

Basic

### Call method
[that(), 'method']
that()->method(...)
that()->call('method')
that(method: 'method')


### Add arguments
[that()->withArgs($arg1, $arg2), 'method']
that()->withArgs($arg1, $arg2)->method(...)
that()->call('method', [$arg1, $arg2])
[that(args: [$arg1, $arg2]), 'method']
that(args: [$arg1, $arg2])->method(...)


### Get Property
that()->property
that()->get('property')
that(property: 'property')

Laravel Collection Advantage

Yes, Laravel got HighOrderedProxy which allows to the chain of operations conveniently, but IDE loses the type for it:

collect($objects)
    ->map
    ->method() # Return type is lost
    ->filter
    ->anotherMethod($arg1)
    ->all();
    
collect($objects)
    ->map
    ->existingCollectionMethodWhichReturnsBool() # Even worse, now IDE thinks that it returns bool here
    ->filter # Static analysis tools complains
    ->anotherMethod($arg1)
    ->all();

That's why I personally for this case would prefer to avoid HighOrderedProxy. It`s where "that" proxy comes handy:

collect($objects)
    ->map([that()->method(...))
    ->filter(that()->withArgs($arg1)->anotherMethod(...))
    ->all(); # Return type never gets lost

Note

First argument (class) is not required, however when provided, you take advantage of IDE autocompletion:

# Full support
that(MyClass::class)->method(...)
that()->setClass(MyClass::class)->method(...)
that(MyClass::class)->property
that()->setClass(MyClass::class)->property


# Partial support; IDE does not suggest method,
# but it`s clickable as soon as you type it
[that(MyClass::class), 'method']
[that()->setClass(MyClass::class), 'method']


# No support; However, eventually, you never need that unless
# you want to call method which exists in That class
that(MyClass::class)->call('method')
that(MyClass::class, method: 'method')
that(MyClass::class)->get('property')
that(MyClass::class, property: 'property')