Question

Basically I have a class that sends a SOAP request for room information receives a response, it can only handle one room at a time.. eg:

class roomParser {
    private $numRooms;
    private $adults;
    private $dailyPrice;

    public function parse(){}
    public function send(){}

};

$room = new roomParser( $arrival, $departue );
$return = $room->parse();

if ( $return ) { }

Now I have the dilemma of basically supporting multiple rooms, and for each room I have to separately keep information of the dailyPrice, # of adults, so I have to sessionize each rooms information since its a multiple step form..

Should I just create multiple instances of my object, or somehow modify my class so it supports any # of rooms in a rooms array, and in the rooms array it contains properties for each room?

Edit #1: After taking advice I tried implementing the Command pattern:

<?php

interface Parseable {

    public function parse( $arr, $dept );
}

class Room implements Parseable {

    protected $_adults;
    protected $_kids;
    protected $_startDate;
    protected $_endDate;
    protected $_hotelCode;
    protected $_sessionNs;
    protected $_minRate;
    protected $_maxRate;
    protected $_groupCode;
    protected $_rateCode;
    protected $_promoCode;
    protected $_confCode;
    protected $_currency = 'USD';
    protected $_soapAction;
    protected $_soapHeaders;
    protected $_soapServer;
    protected $_responseXml;
    protected $_requestXml;

    public function __construct( $startdate,$enddate,$rooms=1,$adults=2,$kids=0 ) {
        $this->setNamespace(SESSION_NAME);
        $this->verifyDates( $startdate, $enddate );

        $this->_rooms= $rooms;
        $this->_adults= $adults;
        $this->_kids= $kids;

        $this->setSoapAction();
        $this->setRates();
    }

    public function parse( $arr, $dept ) {
        $this->_price = $arr * $dept * rand();
        return $this;
    }

    public function setNamespace( $namespace ) {
        $this->_sessionNs = $namespace;
    }

    private function verifyDates( $startdate, $enddate ) {}

    public function setSoapAction( $str= 'CheckAvailability' ) {
        $this->_soapAction = $str;
    }

    public function setRates( $rates='' ) { }

    private function getSoapHeader() {
        return '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
            <soap:Header>
            </soap:Header>';
    }

    private function getSoapFooter() {
        return '</soap:Envelope>';
    }

    private function getSource() {
        return '<POS>
            <Source><RequestorId ID="" ID_Context="" /></Source>
            </POS>';
    }

    function requestXml() {
        $this->_requestXml  = $this->getSoapHeader();
        $this->_requestXml .='<soap:Body></soap:Body>';
        return $this->_requestXml;
    }

    private function setSoapHeaders ($contentLength) {
        $this->_soapHeaders = array('POST /url HTTP/1.1',
            'Host: '.SOAP_HOST,
            'Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8',
            'Content-Length: '.$contentLength);
    }
}

class RoomParser extends SplObjectStorage {

    public function attach( Parseable $obj ) {
        parent::attach( $obj );
    }

    public function parseRooms( $arr, $dept ) {
        for ( $this->rewind(); $this->valid(); $this->next() ) {
            $ret = $this->current()->parse( $arr, $dept );
            echo $ret->getPrice(), PHP_EOL;
        }
    }
}

$arrive = '12/28/2010';
$depart = '01/02/2011';
$rooms = new RoomParser( $arrive, $depart);
$rooms->attach( new Room( '12/28/2010', '01/02/2011') );
$rooms->attach( new Room( '12/29/2010', '01/04/2011') );
echo $rooms->count(), ' Rooms', PHP_EOL;

Answer 1

Given from the information in the question, I’d probably use a Command Pattern

All Rooms should implement a parse() command

interface Parseable
{
    public function parse($arr, $dept);
}

A room instance could look like this

class Room implements Parseable
{
    protected $_price;
    protected $_adults;
    public function parse($arr, $dept) {
         // nonsense calculation, exchange with your parse logic
        $this->_price = $arr * $dept * rand();
        return $this;
    }
    public function getPrice()
    {
        return $this->_price;
    }
}

To go through them, I’d add them to an Invoker that stores all rooms and knows how to invoke their parse() method and also knows what to do with the return from parse(), if necessary

class RoomParser extends SplObjectStorage
{
    // makes sure we only have objects implementing parse() in store      
    public function attach(Parseable $obj)
    {
        parent::attach($obj);
    }

    // invoking all parse() methods in Rooms
    public function parseRooms($arr, $dept)
    {
        for($this->rewind(); $this->valid(); $this->next()) {
            $ret = $this->current()->parse($arr, $dept);
            // do something with $ret
            echo $ret->getPrice(), PHP_EOL;
        }
    }
    // other methods
}

And then you could use it like this:

$parser = new RoomParser;
$parser->attach(new Room);
$parser->attach(new Room);
$parser->attach(new Room);
$parser->attach(new Room);
echo $parser->count(), ' Rooms', PHP_EOL;

$parser->parseRooms(1,2);

Note that the Invoker extends SplObjectStorage, so it implements Countable, Iterator, Traversable, Serializable and ArrayAccess.