PHP 5 Reflection API performance

Question

I\'m currently considering the use of Reflection classes (ReflectionClass and ReflectionMethod mainly) in my own MVC web framework, because I need to automatically instancia

Answer 1

The overhead is small so there is no big performance penalty other stuff like db, template processing etc are performance problems, test your framework with a simple action to see how fast it is.

For example the code bellow (frontcontroller) which uses reflection does it jobs in a few miliseconds

getParameters() as $parameter) {
                    $parameters[$parameter->getName()] = null;
                }
                return $parameters;
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Redirect or direct to a action or default module action and parameters
     * it has the ability to http redirect to the specified action
     * internally used to direct to action
     *
     * @param string $moduleName
     * @param string $actionName
     * @param array $parameters
     * @param bool $http_redirect

     * @return bool
     */
    function redirect($moduleName, $actionName, $parameters = null, $http_redirect = false) {
        self :: $moduleName = $moduleName;
        self :: $actionName = $actionName;
        // We assume all will be ok
        $ok = true;

        @include_once ( PATH . '/modules/' . $moduleName . '.php' );

        // We check if the module's class really exists
        if (!class_exists('mod_' . $moduleName, false)) { // if the module does not exist route to module main
            @include_once ( PATH . '/modules/main.php' );
            $modClassName = 'mod_main';
            $module = new $modClassName();
            if (method_exists($module, $moduleName)) {
                self :: $moduleName = 'main';
                self :: $actionName = $moduleName;
                //$_PARAMS = explode( '/' , $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] );
                //unset($parameters[0]);
                //$parameters = array_slice($_PARAMS, 1, -1);
                $parameters = array_merge(array($actionName), $parameters); //add first parameter
            } else {
                $parameters = array($moduleName, $actionName) + $parameters;
                $actionName = 'index';
                $moduleName = 'main';
                self :: $moduleName = $moduleName;
                self :: $actionName = $actionName;
            }
        } else { //if the action does not exist route to action index
            @include_once ( PATH . '/modules/' . $moduleName . '.php' );
            $modClassName = 'mod_' . $moduleName;
            $module = new $modClassName();
            if (!method_exists($module, $actionName)) {
                $parameters = array_merge(array($actionName), $parameters); //add first parameter
                $actionName = 'index';
            }
            self :: $moduleName = $moduleName;
            self :: $actionName = $actionName;
        }
        if (empty($module)) {
            $modClassName = 'mod_' . self :: $moduleName;
            $module = new $modClassName();
        }

        $method = new ReflectionMethod('mod_' . self :: $moduleName, self :: $actionName);

        //sanitize and set method variables
        if (is_array($parameters)) {
            foreach ($method->getParameters() as $parameter) {
                $param = current($parameters);
                next($parameters);
                if ($parameter->isDefaultValueAvailable()) {
                    if ($param !== false) {
                        self :: $params[$parameter->getName()] = sanitizeOne(urldecode(trim($param)), $parameter->getDefaultValue());
                    } else {
                        self :: $params[$parameter->getName()] = null;
                    }
                } else {
                    if ($param !== false) {//check if variable is set, avoid notice
                        self :: $params[$parameter->getName()] = sanitizeOne(urldecode(trim($param)), 'str');
                    } else {
                        self :: $params[$parameter->getName()] = null;
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            foreach ($method->getParameters() as $parameter) {
                self :: $params[$parameter->getName()] = null;
            }
        }

        if ($http_redirect === false) {//no redirecting just call the action
            if (is_array(self :: $params)) {
                $method->invokeArgs($module, self :: $params);
            } else {
                $method->invoke($module);
            }
        } else {
            //generate the link to action
            if (is_array($parameters)) { // pass parameters
                $link = '/' . $moduleName . '/' . $actionName . '/' . implode('/', self :: $params);
            } else {
                $link = '/' . $moduleName . '/' . $actionName;
            }
            //redirect browser
            header('Location:' . $link);

            //if the browser does not support redirecting then provide a link to the action
            die('Your browser does not support redirect please click here ' . $link . '');
        }
        return $ok;
    }

    /**
     * Redirects to action contained within current module
     */
    function redirectAction($actionName, $parameters) {
        self :: $actionName = $actionName;
        call_user_func_array(array(&$this, $actionName), $parameters);
    }

    public function module($moduleName) {
        self :: redirect($moduleName, $actionName, $parameters, $http_redirect = false);
    }

    /**
     * Processes the client's REQUEST_URI and handles module loading/unloading and action calling
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function dispatch() {
        if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'][strlen($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) - 1] !== '/') {
            $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] .= '/'; //add end slash for safety (if missing)
        }

        //$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = @str_replace( BASE ,'', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
        // We divide the request into 'module' and 'action' and save paramaters into $_PARAMS
        if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] != '/') {
            $_PARAMS = explode('/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);

            $moduleName = $_PARAMS[1]; //get module name
            $actionName = $_PARAMS[2]; //get action
            unset($_PARAMS[count($_PARAMS) - 1]); //delete last
            unset($_PARAMS[0]);
            unset($_PARAMS[1]);
            unset($_PARAMS[2]);
        } else {
            $_PARAMS = null;
        }

        if (empty($actionName)) {
            $actionName = 'index'; //use default index action
        }

        if (empty($moduleName)) {
            $moduleName = 'main'; //use default main module
        }
        /* if (isset($_PARAMS))

          {

          $_PARAMS = array_slice($_PARAMS, 3, -1);//delete action and module from array and pass only parameters

          } */
        return self :: redirect($moduleName, $actionName, $_PARAMS);
    }
}