Trex Reflection Laravel Package

Getting Started

This package provides lightweight, utility-focused reflection helpers—ideal for inspecting classes, methods, properties, and attributes (annotations) in a more expressive, chainable way. Since it hasn’t been updated since 2020, assume PHP ≤8.0 compatibility (no native attributes support for newer PHP). Start by installing via Composer:

composer require raphhh/trex-reflection

The entry point is typically \Trex\Reflection\ReflectionHelper, offering static methods like forClass(), forMethod(), forProperty() to build fluent reflection objects. Your first use case might be safely retrieving docblock annotations (e.g., @var, custom @SWG\Property) without writing preg_match or ReflectionMethod::getDocComment() boilerplate.

Implementation Patterns

• Fluent inspection chains: Use ReflectionHelper::forClass(MyClass::class)->getMethods()->filterByVisibility('public') to chain operations.
• Annotation extraction: Extract metadata like @Route("/api/users") from docblocks using getMethodDocblockAnnotation('route', $method)—useful for custom routing, serialization, or validation layers.
• Property type inference: Where native types aren’t available (PHP < 7.4), infer type from @var annotations:

  $type = ReflectionHelper::forProperty($object, 'name')->getDocblockType();
  

• Integration in macros/IDE-like tools: Embed into service containers or factories to generate DTO schemas, hydrators, or API documentation generators without external dependencies.

Gotchas and Tips

• No PSR-19 or modern attribute support: Won’t parse PHP 8 native attributes—use PhpDocParser or nikic/php-parser if you need modern metadata handling.
• Case sensitivity: Method/property name lookups may be case-sensitive depending on underlying reflection; ensure consistent casing in code and annotations.
• Static analysis risk: PHPDoc types (@var, @param) are not verified—invalid or missing tags return null or defaults silently. Always validate assumptions with hasDocblock() first.
• Fork for modern PHP: If targeting PHP ≥8.0, consider branching and adding support for native attributes—e.g., getMethodAttributes() as a wrapper around ReflectionMethod::getAttributes().
• Performance: Avoid calling heavy methods (e.g., forClass()->getPropertiesWithDocblocks()) in hot loops—cache results or delegate to builder classes.