I have a case where I have some common functionality within a macro. I have coded that as a macro, but don't want this to be accessible outside the current ftl (just like a private instance variable in Java). One way to do this is to keep the inner macro in a separate file and only include it in this ftl, but that seems to be a bit of a hack. Any suggestions?
There are no private macros in FreeMarker.
If your only concern is namespace pollution (as opposed to security), you may want to look into #import. If you just want to communicate that this macro shouldn't be called from outside, you may start its name with _; that means nothing to FreeMarker, but kind of documents that it's something you shouldn't call unless you know what you are doing.
Related
Is there any strong reasons to choose one over the other when declaring the mappings for url resources?
#RequestMapping(Mappings.USER)
vs
#RequestMapping("${mappings.user}")
I understand that property files can be modified after deployment, and that might be a reason to keep it in properties if you want it to be changed easily, right? But also I think changing them easily could be undesirable. So for those with experience, which do you prefer, and why? I think a constants file might be easier to refactor, like if I wanted to change the name of a resource I would only have to refactor inside the constants class vs if I refactored properties I would have to refactor in the properties file and everywhere that uses the mapping (Im using eclipse and as far as I know it doesnt have property name refactoring like that). Or maybe a third option of neither and declaring them all as literals inside the controllers?
It all depends on your use case. If you need the change URIs without recompilation, property files is the way to go. Otherwise, constants provide type safety and ease of unit testing that SPEL doesn't. If you're not gonna change or reuse them (for example, same URI for GET and POST is very common), I don't see any need for constants at all.
I have a program that will grab several global settings from an API when first logged in. These values are then used extensively throughout the program. Currently I am storing them in global variables, but it does not seem very OOP.
What are the alternatives to global variables for storing extensively used settings? Use constants? Class variables? Where would I initialize the values through the API call, since this would only need to happen once? I have seen some examples that instantiate a class to get to the variables but that does not make much sense to me.
I would like to set the values on login and after this call the variables everywhere else with a simple expression like Global.myvalue or GLOBAL_MYVALUE
The Singleton Pattern might be handy for this:
https://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.1.0/libdoc/singleton/rdoc/Singleton.html
It's hard to give you a concise answer based on the information you provided, but I would avoid using global variables at all costs.
A good starting point would be to think of a class that could be a common ancestor to all the places where you use these variables and store them in that class. If your subclasses inherit from that class, these variables will automatically be available in their context.
Edit: like #seph posted, the singleton pattern seems to be a much better solution though
I'm writing a MATLAB application which has many functions spread over different files. I have a logger, which is a struct with a function pointer, and I use it to log information for the user to see (that is, which function is currently executing, calculation results, etc.). The reason I use a struct for my logger and not simply fprintf() is that I could easily replace it with an XML logger, HTML logger, etc. in the future.
Since my code is composed of many functions calling each other, I declared my logger struct as global, so I don't have to pass it to all my many functions. However, everywhere I look I see that global variables are evil incarnate in MATLAB and will slow my program down considerably.
Is there a way to have variables available across files without necessarily passing them as input parameters, and without suffering from severe performance penalty?
You can also use persistent keyword inside a file, and allocate the logger there.
It is similar in some ways to the static keyword in C++. It is also an implementation of the Singleton pattern.
function CallLogger(st)
persistent logger;
if isempty(logger)
%Allocate new logger
end
logger.disp(st);
end
It is better than global because
1. No one can destroy your logger without your knowledge.
2. No one even knows about this object, because it is limited to the function scope
By the way, I don't agree that global has a performance issue. It is just not a good practice, in terms of Software Engineering.
Better than invoking persistent variables in a function (which, for example, won't be saved if you save and then reload your workspace) would be to move from function + struct to object: that is, you should look into MATLAB's object oriented programming.
I'm making some changes to an old MFC application. The header "stdafx.h" includes another header "mfcextensions.h" which defines a class "CMemDC". In another header I need to include "afxtoolbar.h" so that I can use the class "CMFCToolBar". The problem is, "afxtoolbar.h" will eventually include "memdc.h" which defines a class "CmemDC". The result is that understandably get compile error 2011.
Now I do have control over our existing code which defines "CMemDC" but this is used in a lot of places so I would rather not change it too much.
What is the best strategy for over coming this? I'm guessing that I could somehow use namespaces, or the other alternative is to rename our existing class "CMemDC" but this is more avoiding the problem rather than solving it for good.
Cheers
Using namespaces is the proper route but you probably also want to look at why CMemDC is declared throughout the whole app. Unless you really need your CMemDC declared everywhere you might be able to get away with removing the include from the stdafx.h and just including in the cpp files that really need it.
C++ namespaces might help you. Put at least one of the CMemDC classes in a suitable namespace, and use their fully qualified names where you want to use each one.
You can avoid using the fully qualified names, and make the namespace usage global in the current scope with
using namespace yournamespacename;
However, this is less explicit (in terms of not being able to directly see which CMemDC are you using at one point in the code) and in case you use both classes in the same scope this won't work.
If you have 2 classes with the same name your best option is to use namespaces. Also you can rename your class as well. But all of that is in your post already. So you have answered question yourself. There is no magic which can help you because you have stuck with the usual problem of the name clashing and namespaces were introduced to resolve this kind of problems.
After developing in CodeIgniter for awhile, I find it difficult to make decisions when to create a custom library and when to create a custom helper.
I do understand that both allow having business logic in it and are reusable across the framework (calling from different controller etc.)
But I strongly believe that the fact that CI core developers are separating libraries from helpers, there has to be a reason behind it and I guess, this is the reason waiting for me to discover and get enlightened.
CI developers out there, pls advise.
i think it's better to include an example.
I could have a
class notification_lib {
function set_message() { /*...*/}
function get_message() {/*...*/}
function update_message() {/*...*/}
}
Alternatively, i could also include all the functions into a helper.
In a notification_helper.php file, i will include set_message(), get_message(), update_message()..
Where either way, it still can be reused. So this got me thinking about the decision making point about when exactly do we create a library and a helper particularly in CI.
In a normal (framework-less) php app, the choice is clear as there is no helper, you will just need to create a library in order to reuse codes. But here, in CI, I would like to understand the core developers seperation of libraries and helpers
Well the choice comes down to set of functions or class. The choice is almost the same as a instance class verses a static class.
If you have just a simply group of functions then you only need to make a group of functions. If these group of functions share a lot of data, then you need to make a class that has an instance to store this data in between the method (class function) calls.
Do you have many public or private properties to store relating to your notification messages?
If you use a class, you could set multiple messages through the system then get_messages() could return a private array of messages. That would make it perfect for being a library.
There is a question I ask myself when deciding this that I think will help you as well. The question is: Am I providing a feature to my framework or am I consolidating?
If you have a feature that you are adding to your framework, then you'll want to create a library for that. Form validation, for example, is a feature that you are adding to a framework. Even though you can do form validation without this library, you're creating a standard system for validation which is a feature.
However, there is also a form helper which helps you create the HTML of forms. The big difference from the form validation library is that the form helper isn't creating a new feature, its just a set of related functions that help you write the HTML of forms properly.
Hopefully this differentiation will help you as it has me.
First of all, you should be sure that you understand the difference between CI library and helper class. Helper class is anything that helps any pre-made thing such as array, string, uri, etc; they are there and PHP already provides functions for them but you still create a helper to add more functionality to them.
On the other hand, library can be anything like something you are creating for the first time, any solution which might not be necessarily already out there.
Once you understand this difference fully, taking decision must not be that difficult.
Helper contains a group of functions to help you do a particular task.
Available helpers in CI
Libraries usually contain non-CI specific functionality. Like an image library. Something which is portable between applications.
Available libraries in CI
Source link
If someone ask me what the way you follow when time comes to create Helpers or Libraries.
I think these differences:
Class : In a nutshell, a Class is a blueprint for an object. And an object encapsulates conceptually related State and Responsibility of something in your Application and usually offers an programming interface with which to interact with these. This fosters code reuse and improves maintainability.
Functions : A function is a piece of code which takes one more input in the form of parameter and does some processing and returns a value. You already have seen many functions like fopen() and fread() etc. They are built-in functions but PHP gives you option to create your own functions as well.
So go for Class i.e. libraries if any one point matches
global variable need to use in two or more functions or even one, I hate using Global keyword
default initialization as per each time call or load
some tasks are private to entity not publicly open, think of functions never have public modifiers why?
function to function dependencies i.e. tasks are separated but two or more tasks needs it. Think of validate_email check only for email sending script for to,cc,bcc,etc. all of these needs validate_email.
And Lastly not least all related tasks i.e. functions should be placed in single object or file, it's easier for reference and remembrance.
For Helpers : any point which not matches with libraries
Personally I use libraries for big things, say an FTP-library I built that is a lot faster than CodeIgniters shipped library. This is a class with a lot of methods that share data with each other.
I use helpers for smaller tasks that are not related to a lot of other functionality. Small functions like decorating strings might be an example. Or copying a directory recursively to another location.