I would like to call a class without initializing it even if it's normally not static. So basically it should init itself with the first method call.
I'm wondering how laravel is doing this:
$someClass = SomeClass::where()->get()
This works on every method they provide.
I googled a long time but as long as you don't know the name of this behavior it's really hard to find.
Would be nice if you could help me out.
As it has been mentioned, it is all in the source code. Take a look at this part of the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model class (Github link)
public static function __callStatic($method, $parameters)
{
$instance = new static;
return call_user_func_array(array($instance, $method), $parameters);
}
Every static method call for which no method exists (which is the case with most of the methods you can statically call on a model class) will end up at __callStatic.
Then, with new static, an instance of the class will be created and the method is called using call_user_func_array.
Laravel (sometimes) calls this feature a "Facade" -- explaining how this is accomplished in Laravel means going way down the Laravel rabbit hole and is beyond the scope of a single Stack Overflow answer -- if you're interested in that I'm the author of a 10 article series that covers the implementation details of a lot of Laravel's "magic" methods -- worth checking out if you're the sort who likes those sort of nitty gritty details. The PHP manual entry on overloading is also useful.
The short version is, all PHP classes have a magic method named __callStatic. If your class has __callStatic defined
class Foo
{
public function __callStatic($method, $args)
{
}
}
and you call a method that does not exist, or is protected/private
Foo::notThere(1,2,'foo');
Then PHP will call the __callStatic method instead, with $method being the method's name (notThere above) and $args being an array of parameters passed to the method (1, 2, and foo above)
Facade and the only thing that's similar is the __callStatic part. Do you agree Alan?
bind() or singleton(). (Even though most of the time you will use the same instance with multiple Facade calls, with or without singleton)