what is the correct way to extract two sets of data from a method class - oop

Question

I am new to OOP and still a bit confused by the concepts
I created a class` method that will extract two sets of data from a Zend_Session_Namespace. my problem now is that I don't know how to extract these data when its pulled into another method.
It might be best if I show you what I mean:
Public function rememberLastProductSearched()
{
$session = new Zend_Session_Namespace(searchedproducts);
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched')) {
$session->ProductSearched = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched');
return " $session->ProductSearched";
} else {
if ($session->ProductSearched) {
return " $session->ProductSearched ";
}
}
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term')) {
$session->SearchTerm = $this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term');
return " $session->SearchTerm";
} else {
if ($session->SearchTerm) {
return " $session->SearchTerm ";
}
}
This method should obtain two sets of data i.e the
$session->SearchTerm
$session->ProductSearched
my confusion is this; how do I now extract both sets of data in another method call (that is within the same class).i.e
Above is my attempt to extract the information- but it did not work.
Alternatively, should I have placed the information into an array- if so, can somebody please tell me how I could have done this.

Answer 1

It looks like what you're trying to do is use the product-searched and search-terms from params and store them in the session if they're set, otherwise access previously saved values. It would help a bit to see how you're calling this method, but I would probably modify your code slightly to return the session namespace object instead, since that then contains the two values, regardless of whether they came from params or were there already:
public function rememberLastProductSearched()
{
$searchedProducts = new Zend_Session_Namespace('searchedproducts');
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched')) {
$searchedProducts->ProductSearched = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched');
}
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term')) {
$searchedProducts->SearchTerm = $this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term');
}
return $searchedProducts;
}
I'm assuming you have this method in a controller class, so you'd call it like this:
public function searchAction()
{
$searchedProducts = $this->rememberLastProductSearched();
// do something with the values here
}
you'll then have the two values in $searchedProducts->ProductSearched and $searchedProducts->SearchTerm.

Answer 2

The line "return $something;" will stop the code execution and return the value. If you want to return more than one value, you will need to either return an array or use two separate functions to return the values. If you want to return an array, you could do it this way:
public function rememberLastProductSearched() {
$returnArray = array();
$session = new Zend_Session_Namespace(searchedproducts);
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched')) {
$session->ProductSearched = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched');
$returnArray['productSearched'] = $session->ProductSearched;
} else {
if ($session->ProductSearched) {
$returnArray['productSearched'] = $session->ProductSearched;
}
}
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term')) {
$session->SearchTerm = $this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term');
$returnArray['searchTerm'] = $session->SearchTerm;
} else {
if ($session->SearchTerm) {
$returnArray['searchTerm'] = $session->SearchTerm;
}
}
return $returnArray;
}
In your controller or wherever you wanted to check for those values:
$lastSearch = $this->rememberLastProductSearched();
echo $lastSearch['productSearched']; // Product Searched
echo $lastSearch['searchTerm']; // Search terms
But it might be cleaner to use two function
public function getLastProductSearched() {
$session = new Zend_Session_Namespace(searchedproducts);
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched')) {
$session->ProductSearched = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched');
$returnValue = $session->ProductSearched;
} else {
if ($session->ProductSearched) {
$returnValue = $session->ProductSearched;
}
}
return $returnValue;
}
public function getLastSearchTerms() {
$session = new Zend_Session_Namespace(searchedproducts);
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term')) {
$session->SearchTerm= $this->getRequest()->getParam('search-term');
$returnValue = $session->SearchTerm;
} else {
if ($session->SearchTerm) {
$returnValue = $session->SearchTerm;
}
}
return $returnValue;
}
And you could use them like this:
echo $this->getLastProductSearched(); // Product Searched
echo $this->getLastSearchTerms(); // Search terms
It will make your code easier to read and debug later on. A few more notes on your code. You could avoid using nested ifs by using ||.
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched') || $session->ProductSearched) {
$returnValue = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched') || $session->ProductSearched;
}
will achieve the same thing as :
if ($this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched')) {
$session->ProductSearched = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product-searched');
$returnArray['productSearched'] = $session->ProductSearched;
} else {
if ($session->ProductSearched) {
$returnArray['productSearched'] = $session->ProductSearched;
}
}
Hope this helps !