learn yii Using getters and setters

Yii has many features that came from other languages, such as Java or C#. One of them is
defining properties with getters and setters for any of the class extended from CComponent
(that is, virtually any Yii class).
From this recipe, you will learn how to define your own properties using getters and setters,
how to make your properties read-only, and how to hide custom processing behind native
PHP assignments.

How to do it...
1. As PHP does not have properties at the language level, we can only use getters and
setters in the following way:
class MyClass
{
// hiding $property
private $property;
// getter
public function getProperty()
{
return $this->property;
}
// setter
public function setProperty($value)
{
$this->property = $value;
}
}
$object = new MyClass();
// setting value
$object->setProperty('value');
// getting value
echo $object->getProperty();
2. This syntax is very common in the Java world but it is a bit long to use in PHP. Still, we
want to use the same functionality C# properties gives us: calling getters and setters
like class members. With Yii, we can do it in the following way:
// extending CComponent is necessary
class MyClass extends CComponent
{
private $property;
public function getProperty()
{
return $this->property;
}
public function setProperty($value)
{
$this->property = $value;
}
}
$object = new MyClass();
$object->property = 'value'; // same as $object->
setProperty('value');
echo $object->property; // same as $object->getProperty();
3. Using this feature, you can make properties read-only or write-only while keeping the
simple PHP syntax as follows:
class MyClass extends CComponent
{
private $read = 'read only property';
private $write = 'write only property';
public function getRead()
{
return $this->read;
}
public function setWrite($value)
{
$this->write = $value;
}
}
$object = new MyClass();
// gives us an error since we are trying to write to read-only
property
$object->read = 'value';
// echoes 'read only property'
echo $object->read;
// gives us an error since we are trying to read to write-only
property
echo $object->write;
// writes 'value' to private $write
$object->write = 'value';

4. Yii uses this technique extensively because almost everything is a component. For
example, when you are calling Yii::app()->user->id to get the currently logged
in user ID, what's really called is Yii::app()->getUser()->getId().
How it works...
To use getters and setters like properties, CComponent uses the PHP magic methods: __
get, __set, __isset, and __unset (http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.
magic.php). The following example shows what Yii 1.1 CComponent::__get looks like:
public function __get($name)
{
$getter='get'.$name;
if(method_exists($this,$getter))
return $this->$getter();
…
This magic PHP method intercepts all calls to missing real properties, so when we are calling
$myClass->property, it receives property as $name parameter. If a method named
getProperty exists, then PHP uses its return value as a property value.