calling a php class function syntax

Question

I am currently looking a this piece of code from a module called ZfcUser for Zend 2:

namespace ZfcUser\Controller;

use Zend\Form\Form;
use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Zend\Stdlib\ResponseInterface as Response;
use Zend\Stdlib\Parameters;
use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;
use ZfcUser\Service\User as UserService;
use ZfcUser\Options\UserControllerOptionsInterface;

class UserController extends AbstractActionController
{
/**
 * @var UserService
 */
protected $userService;
     .
     .

public function indexAction()
{
    if (!$this->zfcUserAuthentication()->hasIdentity()) {
        return $this->redirect()->toRoute('zfcuser/login');
    }
    return new ViewModel();
}
    .
    .
}

In the namespace ZfcUser\Controller\Plugin:

namespace ZfcUser\Controller\Plugin;

use Zend\Mvc\Controller\Plugin\AbstractPlugin;
use Zend\Authentication\AuthenticationService;
use Zend\ServiceManager\ServiceManagerAwareInterface;
use Zend\ServiceManager\ServiceManager;
use ZfcUser\Authentication\Adapter\AdapterChain as AuthAdapter;

class ZfcUserAuthentication extends AbstractPlugin implements ServiceManagerAwareInterface
{
/**
 * @var AuthAdapter
 */
protected $authAdapter;
    .
    .
/**
 * Proxy convenience method
 *
 * @return mixed
 */
public function hasIdentity()
{
    return $this->getAuthService()->hasIdentity();
}
/**
 * Get authService.
 *
 * @return AuthenticationService
 */
public function getAuthService()
{
    if (null === $this->authService) {
        $this->authService = $this->getServiceManager()->get('zfcuser_auth_service');
    }
    return $this->authService;
}

My Questions:

• From indexAction(), the controller plugin is called without being instantiated ($this->zfcUserAuthentication()->hasIdentity()), do controller plugins always work like this?.
• What really happens in the hasIdentity()? I see getAuthService() returning something but not hasIdentity().I am not familiar with this type of advanced class implementation of function calling so I would truly appreciate any explanation here or topic I should look into.

Answer 1

I can't answer your first question, but regarding your second question:

The getAuthService() method in your code returns an AuthenticationService object, which has a hasIdentity() method.

So there are two different hasIdentity() methods:

• In the AuthenticationService class (source code here).
• In the ZfcUserAuthentication class which you're looking at.

This line of code in the ZfcUserAuthentication class:

return $this->getAuthService()->hasIdentity();

does three things:

• $this->getAuthService() returns an AuthenticationService object.
• The hasIdentity() method of that AuthenticationService object is then called, and it returns a boolean.
• That boolean is then returned.

Imagine splitting the code into two parts:

// Get AuthenticationService object     Call a method of that object
$this->getAuthService()                 ->hasIdentity();

Hope that helps!