too long

I'm self-studying the PHP language. And I'm focused on the latest PHP OOP language.

I search for some "ready-to-install" PHP software and as I scan for some references to search and know, I saw lines of code with a structure like this (can't remember so I'll create my own):

$myapp->settings->getValue('openforum');
$myapp->settings->setValue('closeformaintenance', '1');

So my question is, how can I reproduce the code above? I don't know what term to use that line of code (objects, I guess?).

Something like this:

$newLogin->search($uid)->setLogin($dateToday);

Like that. I really need to do that way so I can organize my coding structure. Thanks by the way.

And also for the final question, IS THAT POSSIBLE?

What you try to achieve is called method chaining. You can get this by the following:

<?php
class TestClass {
    private $val = '';

    public function test1($val) {
        $this->val = $val;
        return $this;
    }
    public function test2() {
        echo 'Hello '.$this->val;
    }
}

$test->test1('World')->test2(); // Hello World

You have simply to return the instance of the object on the method to allow the method chaining.

You can read more here.

It's method chaining.

See code below:

class T {
    public function test() {
        // do something

        return $this;
    }
}

$x = new T;
$x->test()->test();

Here's a fairly straight forward way of looking at it, using dependency injection.

Try it out: https://3v4l.org/iSJgL

Note, the below requires PHP 7 due to the string type hint. Remove that and I believe it should work in 5.6 just fine.

<?php

$myapp = new MyApp(new SettingsBag([
    'works' => false, 
    'random' => rand(),
]));

var_dump($myapp->settings()->get('random'));

var_dump($myapp->settings()->get('works'));

// Let's change it up...
$myapp->settings()->set('works', true);

// Now it should be true.
var_dump($myapp->settings()->get('works'));

These would normally have namespaces like \App and/or \App\Configuration, but I ignore that here so it's easier to follow:

class MyApp {

    private $settings_bag = null;

    function __construct(SettingsBag $settings_bag) 
    {
        $this->settings_bag = $settings_bag;
    }

    public function settings()
    {
        return $this->settings_bag;
    }

}

class SettingsBag {

    private $settings = null;

    function __construct(array $settings = [])
    {
        $this->settings = $settings;
    }

    public function set(string $key, $value)
    {
        return $this->settings[$key] = $value;
    }

    public function get(string $key)
    {
        return $this->settings[$key];
    }

}