Question

For MVC reasons, I want to be able to trigger a function to find when the function has been called, since Codeigniter has functions around their core, I want to hook a function such as setcookie and create a file when it’s been called (from the triggered function) for example:

function call_me()
{
    $file = fopen('setcookie.txt', 'a+');
    fwrite($file, 'Called at ' . __CLASS__);
    fclose();
}

So when setcookie is called, it should trigger the call_me function. Is there any specific function or method to do this? I know about debug_backtrace but that’s not the purpose I want.

Answer 1

What you basically need to have a look at is Observers.

The observer pattern (aka. Dependents, publish/subscribe) is a
software design pattern in which an object, called the subject,
maintains a list of its dependents, called observers, and notifies
them automatically of any state changes, usually by calling one of
their methods. It is mainly used to implement distributed event
handling systems. Observer is also a key part in the familiar MVC
architectural pattern. In fact the observer pattern was first
implemented in Smalltalk’s MVC based user interface framework.1

Why don’t you try what is described here :

http://devzone.zend.com/1384/observer-pattern-in-php/