Question

given a loop that sends an email to all subscriptions in an array

foreach($subscriptions as $s){
    if(!$s->send_email()){

    }
}

What would be the cleanest way to trigger a callback if all models have mailed successfully or show an error if one of the models fails to mail. Is it common to save all error messages till the end of the loop and print them as a whole, or break the loop with an error.

I’m using this in combination with a JSON REST API saving a project (/projects/1) which in turn emails all users.

The method I’m using now feels dirty with lot’s of nested if else, sending 3 different response on different places

if($project->save()){
    $subscriptions = Subscription::model()->findAllByAttributes(array('planning_id' => $planning->id));
    foreach($subscriptions as $s){
        if(!$s->send_email()){
            $errors[] = "failed to send email. Subscription ". $s->id;
        }
     }
     if(count($errors) > 0){
          //send json api response with error response
     } else {
         //send json api success response
    }
} else {
    //send json api response with project error response
}

I was wondering what convention is concerning this

Answer 1

It is a little messy – and it combines multiple concerns within the “save” function – anyone reading the code needs to understand what “save” means, how we loop through the contacts etc.

I’d refactor it as follows:

if($project->save()){
    $subscriptions = Subscription::model()->findAllByAttributes(array('planning_id' => $planning->id));
     $errors = sendMailToSubscribers($subscriptions);

     $response = determineResponse($errors);
     // send JSON API response

} else {
    //send json api response with project error response
}

function sendMailToSubscribers($subscriptions){
  foreach($subscriptions as $s){
        if(!$s->send_email()){
            $errors[] = "failed to send email. Subscription ". $s->id;
        }
     }
   return $errors;
  }
function determineResponse($errors){
        if(count($errors) > 0){
          //return json api response with error response
     } else {
         //return json api success response
    }

}