README

A minimalistic Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) implementation for PHP that uses attributes and Composer's autoloading system to weave aspects into classes at runtime.

Installation

composer install icefox/aspect

Usage

Create an Aspect class:

namespace Tests\Aspects;

use Attribute;

#[Attribute(Attribute::TARGET_METHOD)]
class MyAspect
{
    public function before(object|string $target, mixed ...$args): void
    {
        // $target is the class (for static methods) or object (for instance methods)
        // Access all parameters before the wrapped function is called
        var_dump($args);
    }

    public function after(object|string $target, mixed $result): mixed
    {
        // Access the returned value with $result
        var_dump($result);
        // modify the return value, or simply return the unmodified value
        return $result;
    }
}

Register all Aspect classes on application bootstrap:

$cacheDir = 
$useCache = false;

$weaver = new AspectWeaver(
    [MyAspect::class],
    // provide a cache directory to avoid reprocessing class
    sys_get_temp_dir() . '/cache/php-aop-cache';
    // whether to use cache. Disable in dev, enable in production
    false,
    // PSR compatible log, for debugging.
    new NullLogger(),
);

// Provide with classes or namespaces will be evaluated for Aspects
// trying to evaluate all vendor classes will result in a bad time
// at minimum, use withNamespaces to filter your application
// classes will be evaluated if they match the list of classes OR belong to the namespace
$loader = AspectBuilder::begin()
    // list of class names
    ->withClasses([ MyClass::class ])
    // namespace prefix
    ->withNamespaces([ "MyApplication\\" ])
    ->build($weaver)
    ->register();

Create a class and mark a method with your Aspect class:

<?php

class MyClass
{
    #[MyAspect]
    public function add(int $a, int $b): int
    {
        echo "Adding {$a} + {$b}\n";
        return $a + $b;
    }
}

Use the class normally

<?php

$object = new MyClass();
$result = $calc->add(5, 3);
/// MyAspect@before will var_dump([5, 3])
/// MyClass@add will echo "Adding 5 + 3\n"
/// MyAspect@after will var_dump(8)

Proxy Generation Strategy

The weaver uses a two-class approach:

1. Original Class (renamed): The original class is included in the proxy file with a modified name (e.g., __AopOriginal_Calculator)
2. Proxy Class: A new class with the original name that extends the renamed original class and overrides methods marked with #[Aspect]

TODO

Features that may or may not exist in the future

1. Around Advice: Allow aspects to control method execution
2. Demonstrate exception handling
3. Demonstrate Aspect constructor arguments

References

• okapi-web/php-aop
• goaop/framework