Understanding Dependency Injection

Dependency injection and dependency injection containers are different things:

• dependency injection is a method for writing better code
• a container is a tool to help injecting dependencies

You don't need a container to do dependency injection. However a container can help you.

PHP-DI is about this: making dependency injection more practical.

The theory

Classic PHP code

Here is how a code not using DI will roughly work:

• Application needs Foo (e.g. a controller), so:
• Application creates Foo
• Application calls Foo
  • Foo needs Bar (e.g. a service), so:
  • Foo creates Bar
  • Foo calls Bar
    • Bar needs Bim (a service, a repository, …), so:
    • Bar creates Bim
    • Bar does something

Using dependency injection

Here is how a code using DI will roughly work:

• Application needs Foo, which needs Bar, which needs Bim, so:
• Application creates Bim
• Application creates Bar and gives it Bim
• Application creates Foo and gives it Bar
• Application calls Foo
  • Foo calls Bar
    • Bar does something

This is the pattern of Inversion of Control. The control of the dependencies is inverted from one being called to the one calling.

The main advantage: the one at the top of the caller chain is always you. You can control all dependencies and have complete control over how your application works. You can replace a dependency by another (one you made for example).

For example what if Library X uses Logger Y and you want to make it use your logger Z? With dependency injection, you don't have to change the code of Library X.

Using a container

Now how does a code using PHP-DI works:

• Application needs Foo so:
• Application gets Foo from the Container, so:
  • Container creates Bim
  • Container creates Bar and gives it Bim
  • Container creates Foo and gives it Bar
• Application calls Foo
  • Foo calls Bar
    • Bar does something

In short, the container takes away all the work of creating and injecting dependencies.

Understanding with an example

This is a real life example comparing a classic implementation (using new or singletons) VS using dependency injection.

Without dependency injection

Say you have:

class GoogleMaps
{
    public function getCoordinatesFromAddress($address) {
        // calls Google Maps webservice
    }
}
class OpenStreetMap
{
    public function getCoordinatesFromAddress($address) {
        // calls OpenStreetMap webservice
    }
}

The classic way of doing things is:

class StoreService
{
    public function getStoreCoordinates($store) {
        $geolocationService = new GoogleMaps();
        // or $geolocationService = GoogleMaps::getInstance() if you use singletons

        return $geolocationService->getCoordinatesFromAddress($store->getAddress());
    }
}

Now we want to use the OpenStreetMap instead of GoogleMaps, how do we do? We have to change the code of StoreService, and all the other classes that use GoogleMaps.

Without dependency injection, your classes are tightly coupled to their dependencies.

With dependency injection

The StoreService now uses dependency injection:

class StoreService {
    private $geolocationService;

    public function __construct(GeolocationService $geolocationService) {
        $this->geolocationService = $geolocationService;
    }

    public function getStoreCoordinates($store) {
        return $this->geolocationService->getCoordinatesFromAddress($store->getAddress());
    }
}

And the services are defined using an interface:

interface GeolocationService {
    public function getCoordinatesFromAddress($address);
}

class GoogleMaps implements GeolocationService { ...

class OpenStreetMap implements GeolocationService { ...

Now, it is for the user of the StoreService to decide which implementation to use. And it can be changed anytime, without having to rewrite the StoreService.

The StoreService is no longer tightly coupled to its dependency.

With PHP-DI

You may see that dependency injection has one drawback: you now have to handle injecting dependencies.

That's where a container, and specifically PHP-DI, can help you.

Instead of writing:

$geolocationService = new GoogleMaps();
$storeService = new StoreService($geolocationService);

You can write:

$storeService = $container->get('StoreService');

and configure which GeolocationService PHP-DI should automatically inject in StoreService through configuration:

$container->set('StoreService', \DI\create('GoogleMaps'));

If you change your mind, there's just one line of configuration to change now.

Interested? Go ahead and read the Getting started guide!