Observers and Session Objects - not getting notified

[avibodha]

I have a working notifier class that is getting called when it's a regular object created from the auto_init system. no problem.

But I really want that object to be a session variable so I can hold some processing info through checkout. So I made it one like this:

$autoLoadConfig[90][] = array('autoType'=>'classInstantiate',
'className'=>'hcRegistration',
'objectName'=>'hcreg',
'checkInstantiated'=>true,
'classSession'=>true
);

and that does create the session variable....but now my observed events are not called!

I saw that class creation only happens once, since it's then stored in a session, so I moved the observer 'attach' call to a function and call that late in the auto_init time:
$autoLoadConfig[191][] = array('autoType'=>'objectMethod',
'objectName'=>'hcreg',
'methodName' => 'setNotifiers');

This does set the observers...but they are never called.
Does anyone know why you can't have a session object with observers? Or any other ideas what's happening?

My workaround is to create two classes, one that's a session object and one that's not, that's only used for observer events.

any thoughts?
thanks much,
---avibodha

[DrByte]

I'm not sure why you're trying to make an observer be a session object.

Perhaps you can explain in a lot more detail what you're trying to do and why?

And also post your observer code.

[avibodha]

Yes, it actually makes more sense to break it into two classes, one for events and one to hold special session info and processing.

I'm holding some custom form data that gets attached to a product added to the cart and follows it through checkout, so that's in the session object. Needed to handle some events in the cart to keep the data updated (like if product is deleted or cart restored or emptied, etc)...first thought was to have one class....but makes more sense to separate events from data.

Works fine once I separated them out...so no problem now.


When they were together, my event handler was something like this:

class hcEvents extends base {

  function hcEvents() {
    
  }

  // setNotifiers call set up in 'config.hc_loader.php'
  // event 191 (after everything else already done)
  // must call after class set up in case it was already a session variable
  // there is no 'wake up' call to session objects (that I can find)
  function setNotifiers() {
    global $zco_notifier;

    $this->attach($this, array(
        'NOTIFIER_CART_ADD_CART_END',
        'NOTIFIER_CART_REMOVE_END',
        'NOTIFIER_CART_RESTORE_CONTENTS_START',
        'NOTIFIER_CART_INSTANTIATE_END',
        'NOTIFIER_CART_RESET_END'
        ));

    // procedural code overrides
    //$zco_notifier->attach($this, array('NOTIFY_HEADER_END_CHECKOUT_CONFIRMATION'));

  }

  function update(&$class, $eventID) {
    // 'class' is object throwing event
    switch ($eventID) {

    case 'NOTIFIER_CART_INSTANTIATE_END':
    case 'NOTIFIER_CART_RESET_END':
      // reset
      break;
    case 'NOTIFIER_CART_ADD_CART_END':
    case 'NOTIFIER_CART_REMOVE_END':
      // NOTYET see if registration item in cart
      break;
    case 'NOTIFIER_CART_RESTORE_CONTENTS_START':
      // do not restore registration items
      // delete from customers basket, don't restore
      break;
    }
  }

and here's the auto_init code:

// load hc observers code
$autoLoadConfig[10][] = array('autoType'=>'class',
                              'loadFile'=>'observers/hc_reg.php');
// create, after cart object created
// is stored in session
$autoLoadConfig[90][] = array('autoType'=>'classInstantiate',
                              'className'=>'hcEvents',
                              'objectName'=>'hcevt',
                              'checkInstantiated'=>true,
                              'classSession'=>true
                              );

// re-attach notifiers, hc_reg is in session, so restored
// but notifiers are static and not restored, so set them each time
// call function after auto_load
  $autoLoadConfig[191][] = array('autoType'=>'objectMethod',
                                'objectName'=>'hcevt',
                                'methodName' => 'setNotifiers');

It seems like this should have worked since it restored the observers...but when I stepped through the code, the events either didn't find the observer or it did not call the object.

Only a curiosity now, though...I think architecturally better to separate that functionality out anyway.

thanks