EventManager API

This section details the public API of the EventManager, SharedEventManager, EventInterface, and ResponseCollection.

EventManager

Constructor

public function __construct(
    SharedEventManagerInterface $sharedEvents = null,
    array $identifiers = []
)

The EventManager instance accepts a shared event manager instance and identifiers to use with the shared event manager.

setEventPrototype()

public function setEventPrototype(EventInterface $event) : void

Use this method in order to provide an event prototype. The event prototype is used with the trigger() and triggerUntil() methods to create a new event instance; the prototype is cloned and populated with the event name, target, and arguments passed to the method.

getSharedManager()

public function getSharedManager() : null|SharedEventManagerInterface

Use this method to retrieve the composed shared event manager instance, if any.

getIdentifiers()

public function getIdentifiers() : array

Use this method to retrieve the current list of identifiers the event manager defines. Identifiers are used when retrieving listeners from the composed shared event manager.

setIdentifiers() and addIdentifiers()

public function setIdentifiers(array $identifiers) : void
public function addIdentifiers(array $identifiers) : void

Use these methods to manipulate the list of identifiers the event manager is interested in. setIdentifiers() will overwrite any identifiers previously set, while addIdentifiers() will merge them.

trigger()

trigger($eventName, $target = null, $argv = []) : ResponseCollection

where:

• $eventName is a string event name.
• $target is the target of the event; usually the object composing the event manager instance.
• $argv is an array or ArrayAccess instance of arguments that provide context for the event. Typically these will be the arguments passed to the function in which the trigger call occurs.

The target and/or arguments may be omitted, but the event name is required.

When done triggering, the method returns a ResponseCollection.

triggerUntil()

triggerUntil(callable $callback, $eventName, $target = null, $argv = []) : ResponseCollection

triggerUntil() is a sibling to trigger(), and prefixes the argument list with a single $callback.

The $callback is invoked after each listener completes, with the result of that listener. The $callback should inspect the result, and determine if it should result in short-circuiting the event loop. Returning a boolean true value indicates that the criteria has been met and the event loop should end.

As an example:

$events->attach('foo', function ($e) {
    echo "Triggered first\n";
    return true;
});
$events->attach('foo', function ($e) {
    echo "Triggered second\n";
    return false;
});
$events->attach('foo', function ($e) {
    echo "Triggered third\n";
    return true;
});

$events->triggerUntil(function ($result) {
    return (false === $result);
}, 'foo');

In the above example, the event loop will short-circuit after the second listener executes, resulting in the following output:

Triggered first
Triggered second

triggerEvent()

triggerEvent(EventInterface $event) : ResponseCollection

This method is a sibling to trigger(), but unlike trigger(), it accepts an EventInterface instance as its sole argument. It is up to the caller to ensure the event is properly populated.

This method behaves identically to trigger(), returning a ResponseCollection after all listeners have been triggered.

triggerEventUntil()

triggerEventUntil(callable $callback, EventInterface $event) : ResponseCollection

This method is a sibling to triggerEvent() and triggerUntil(). Like triggerUntil(), the first argument is a PHP callable to invoke for each response, and is used to determine whether or not to short-circuit execution. Like triggerEvent(), the next argument is an EventInterface instance.

attach()

attach($eventName, callable $listener, $priority = 1) : callable

Use attach() to attach a callable listener to a named event. $priority can be used to indicate where in the listener queue the event should be executed. Priorities must be integers. High positive integers indicate higher priority (will execute first), while low, negative integers indicate lower priority (will execute last). The default priority is 1, and listeners registered with the same priority will execute in the order in which they attach to the event manager.

The method returns the listener attached.

detach()

detach(callable $listener, $eventName = null) : void

Use detach() to remove a listener. When a named $eventName is provided, the method will detach the listener from that event only (or, if the event does not exist in the event manager, nothing will occur). If no event is provided, or the wildcard event is provided, the listener will be detached from all events.

clearListeners()

clearListeners($eventName) : void

Use this method to remove all listeners for a given named event.

prepareArgs()

prepareArgs(array $args) : ArrayObject

Normally when working with an event, if you want to change any arguments in the event, you would need to do the following:

$args = $e->getParams();

// Manipulate args:
$args['foo'] = 'bar';

// Pass them back in:
$e->setParams($args);

If the arguments you provide are an object, however, you can manipulate them directly:

$args = $e->getParams();

// Manipulate args:
$args->foo = 'bar';

// Done!

Using an object, however, makes accessing individual parameters difficult:

$foo = $e->getParam('foo'); // How should the event know how to get this?

As such, we recommend passing either an array or an ArrayObject instance for event arguments. If you pass the latter, you get the benefit of being able to manipulate by reference.

prepareArgs() can thus be used to return an ArrayObject representation of your arguments to pass to trigger() or triggerUntil():

$events->attach('foo', $this, $events->prepareArgs(compact('bar', 'baz')));

SharedEventManager

attach()

attach($identifier, $eventName, callable $listener, $priority = 1) : void

Attach a listener to a named event triggered by an identified context, where:

• $identifier is a string identifier that may be defined by an EventManager instance; $identifier may be the wildcard *.
• $eventName is a string event name (or the wildcard *).
• $listener is a PHP callable that will listen for an event.
• $priority is the priority to use when attaching the listener.

detach()

detach(callable $listener, $identifier = null, $eventName = null) : void

Detach a listener, optionally from a single identifier, and optionally from a named event, where:

• $listener is the PHP callable listener to detach.
• $identifier is a string identifier from which to detach.
• $eventName is a string event name from which to detach.

If no or a null $identifier is provided, the listener will be detached from all identified contexts. If no or a null $eventName is provided, the listener will be detached from all named events discovered.

getListeners()

getListeners(array $identifiers, $eventName = null) : array[]

Retrieves all registered listeners for a given identifier and named event; if the event name is omitted, it returns all listeners for the identifier.

Each value in the array returned is in the form:

[
    'listener' => callable,
    'priority' => int,
]

Implementations should return wildcard listeners in this array.

This method is used by the EventManager in order to get a set of listeners for the event being triggered.

clearListeners()

clearListeners($id, $eventName = null) : bool

This event will clear all listeners for a given identifier, or, if specified, the specific event for the named identifier.

EventInterface

In most cases, you will use Laminas\EventManager\Event, but some components will define custom events. The EventInterface thus defines the common methods across any event implementation.

getName()

getName() : string

Returns the event name.

getTarget()

getTarget() : null|string|object

Returns the event target, if any.

getParams()

getParams() : array|ArrayAccess

Returns the event parameters, if any.

getParam()

getParam($name, $default = null) : mixed

Returns a single named parameter, returning the $default if not found.

setName()

setName($name) : void

Sets the event name.

setTarget()

setTarget($target) : void

Sets the event target. $target may be a string or object.

setParams()

setParams($params) : void

Set the event parameters; $params should be an array or object implementing ArrayAccess.

setParam()

setParam($name, $value) : void

Set a single named event parameter value.

stopPropagation()

stopPropagation($flag = true) : void

Indicate whether or not event propagation should halt (short-circuit). This value is what will be returned by propagationIsStopped().

propagationIsStopped()

propagationIsStopped() : bool

Used by the event manager to determine if the event has indicated that the event loop should short-circuit.

ResponseCollection

A ResponseCollection instance is returned by each of trigger(), triggerUntil(), triggerEvent(), and triggerEventUntil(), and represents the various results of listener execution.

The ResponseCollection is iterable, and iteration will return the various responses in the order in which they were provided. In addition, it has the API listed below.

stopped()

stopped() : bool

Use this to determine if something caused the event loop to short-circuit.

first()

first() : mixed

Returns the result from the first listener executed.

last()

last() : mixed

Returns the result from the last listener executed.

contains()

contains($value) : bool

Query the response collection to determine if a specific value was returned by any listener.