I am building an application where the client provides $_GET['task'] which is limited to list, detail, or edit, and in response the server will provide a list of available records for all IDs, the record for $_GET['id'], or a form to edit record $_GET['id'], respectively.
I would like the string provided by the client to directly match a method in a certain object and not have to map it as a one-off so that I and others will not get confused.
All works well except for list as it is a reserved word.
What is a good synonymy for "list" from both a general user's (since they will see it in the URL) and developers prospective (since they have to make it work)?
Well first of all directly exposing your class methods is probably not the best way to set things up. As for list being a reserved word, why limit yourself by not using an api.
At some point in your application you will need some logic, right. So why not just
switch( $_GET['mode'] ){
case 'list':
do something
break;
}
In fact its better to use a class constant, for this like
Class::MODE_LIST = 'list';
Besides if you really want to name it list you can, use __call like so.
class API {
const MODE_LIST = 'list';
const MODE_TASK = 'task';
const MODE_EDIT = 'edit';
public function __call($method, $args){
switch($method){
case self::MODE_LIST:
return $this->_list( $args );
break;
case self::MODE_TASK:
break;
case self::MODE_EDIT:
break;
default:
///error -- do some error reporting.
}
}
protected function _list( $args ){
}
}
$API = new API();
$API->{$_GET['mode']}();