Dependency injection

About this guide

Read this guide if

  • you want to take advantage of dependency injections which can help you decoupling your code, getting more reusable code, and testing your code more easily.
  • you want to configure Matomo differently by changing which classes it uses. For example you could define your own kind of logger and get Matomo to use it instead of the default logger.

Loading a class through dependency injection

Plugin developers can take advantage of constructor injection in most API classes in Matomo. This works for example for controllers, APIs, widgets, menus, tasks, commands etc. Matomo will automatically create the needed instances and pass it to your constructor.

For example if you want an instance of a logger and translator, simply define them in the constructor. It automatically also works for your own classes. For example:

  use Piwik\Translation\Translator;
  use Piwik\Log\LoggerInterface;
  use Piwik\Plugins\MyPlugin\Dao\MyEntityDao;

  class API
  {
      /**
       * @var Translator
       */
      private $translator;

      /**
       * @var LoggerInterface
       */
      private $logger;

      /**
       * @var MyEntityDao
       */
      private $myEntityDao;

      public function __construct(Translator $translator, LoggerInterface $logger, MyEntityDao $myEntityDao)
      {
          $this->translator = $translator;
          $this->logger = $logger;
          $this->myEntityDao = $myEntityDao;
      }

      public function doSomething() {
          $this->myEntityDao->storeSomething();
          $text = $this->translator->translate('MyPlugin_TranslationKey');
          $this->logger->info($text);
      }
  }

When you inject your own classes, Matomo will also automatically resolve the dependencies for these classes using the constructor. Say for the above MyEntityDao example you can take advantage of having dependencies automatically resolved like this

  namespace Piwik\Plugins\MyPlugin\Dao;
  use Piwik\Translation\Translator;
  use Piwik\Log\LoggerInterface;

  class MyEntityDao
  {

      /**
       * @var LoggerInterface
       */
      private $logger;

      public function __construct(LoggerInterface $logger)
      {
          $this->logger = $logger;
      }

      public function storeSomething() {
          $this->logger->info('store something in DB');
      }
  }

Container Configuration

If you want to inject a configuration value (e.g. an int or a string) then you will have to create a DI configuration.

The container includes the following configuration files in the order listed:

  • config/global.php: main configuration file
  • plugins/*/config/config.php: the main configuration for each individual plugin (if any exists)
  • plugins/*/config/tracker.php: only loaded in tracker mode when a tracking request is being processed
  • config/environment/$environment.php: the "environment" configuration file (eg "dev", "test")

    For each Matomo entry point (ie, cli, tracker) there is a different environment file that will be loaded. This allows plugins and developers to configure Matomo differently based on the way Matomo (formerly Piwik) is running. Currently, the following environments are recognized: cli, tracker.

  • plugins/*/config/$environment.php: the environment configuration for each individual plugin (if any exists)
  • config/environment/dev.php: a special environment config file included when running in development mode
  • plugins/*/config/dev.php: the dev configuration for each individual plugin (if any exists)
  • config/environment/test.php: a special environment config file included when running PHPUnit tests or UI tests
  • plugins/*/config/test.php: the test configuration for each individual plugin (if any exists)
  • config/config.php: optional user configuration file (not versioned in git)

When developing a plugin, you can supply DI config with your plugin in one of the files listed above to either configure your plugin or customize Matomo.

The syntax used in those files is described in PHP-DI's documentation. Below are examples of the most common use cases.

Binding an interface to a class

return array(
    'Piwik\Translation\Loader\LoaderInterface' => Piwik\DI::autowire('Piwik\Translation\Loader\LoaderCache')
);

This will automatically create an instance of the LoaderCache whenever the LoaderInterface is requested.

Defining a value

return array(
    'log.format' => '%level% %tag%[%datetime%] %message%'
);

This can come in handy if you want to pass a value instead of an object to a constructor. For more details see the next example.

Manually defining a constructor parameter

Given that you have the following class:

class LineMessageFormatter
{
    public function __construct($logFormat)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

We configure to inject the log.format entry in the constructor:

return array(
    'Piwik\Log\Formatter\LineMessageFormatter' => Piwik\DI::autowire()
        ->constructor(Piwik\DI::link('log.format')),
);

or

return array(
    'Piwik\Log\Formatter\LineMessageFormatter' => Piwik\DI::autowire()
        ->constructorParameter('logFormat', Piwik\DI::link('log.format')),
);

Using PHP code to create an object

return array(
    'foo.bar' => Piwik\DI::factory(function (\Piwik\Container\Container $c) {
        $bar = // ...
        return Foo::createSomething($bar);
    }),
);

Adding new event listeners

It's also possible to add additional event listeners for any Matomo event using Dependency Injection. As most events are using references to make manipulation possible it's required to wrap the event listener functions into Piwik\DI::value.

return [
    'observers.global' => [
        ['AssetManager.getStylesheetFiles', Piwik\DI::value(function (&$stylesheets) {
            $stylesheets[] = 'my\custom.css';
        })],
    ],
];

Configuring containers in tests

When writing integration or system tests you can inject your own classes (such as mocks) into the Matomo environment one of two ways:

  1. Add configuration to your plugin's config/test.php file. For example:

    <?php
    return array(
      'Piwik\Plugins\MyPlugin\MyRESTClient' => Piwik\DI::autowire('Piwik\Plugins\MyPlugin\Test\MockRESTClient'),
    );
    

    This configuration is applied in every test, however, so it may not be desirable.

  2. Override the provideContainerConfig() method in either your test case class or your Fixture class and return the DI config. For example:

    use Piwik\Tests\Framework\TestCase\IntegrationTestCase;
    class APITest extends IntegrationTestCase
    {
      // ... test cases ...
      public function provideContainerConfig()
      {
          return array(
              'Piwik\Plugins\MyPlugin\Dao\MyEntityDao' => Piwik\DI::autowire('Piwik\Plugins\MyPlugin\Test\Mock\MockMyEntityDao')
                  ->constructorParameter('tmpPath', '/my/test/tmp/path'),
          );
      }
    }
    

Both of these types of container configuration affect child processes as well. So, for example, tracker requests sent in Fixtures will use this overridden configuration.

Configuring the container in UI tests

For UI tests which are written in JavaScript, this is a bit trickier. You can either use the first approach above, or override the DI config in a Fixture class and use it in your tests.

For example, in your Fixture:

use Piwik\Tests\Framework\Fixture;
class MyFixture extends Fixture
{
    // ...
    public function provideContainerConfig()
    {
        return array( /** container config */);
    }
}

then in your UI test:

describe("MyUiTest", function () {
    this.fixture = "Piwik\\Plugins\\MyPlugin\\Test\\Fixtures\\MyFixture";
    // ... tests ...
})

What's next?