@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ A cloner is used to create an intermediate representation of any PHP variable.
3434Its output is a:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Cloner\\ Data `
3535object that wraps this representation.
3636
37- You can create a:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Cloner\\ Data `
38- object this way::
37+ You can create a ``Data `` object this way::
3938
4039 use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
4140
@@ -45,8 +44,11 @@ object this way::
4544 // see the example at the top of this page
4645 // $dumper->dump($data);
4746
48- A cloner also applies limits when creating the representation, so that the
49- corresponding Data object could represent only a subset of the cloned variable.
47+ Whatever the cloned data structure, resulting ``Data `` objects are always
48+ serializable.
49+
50+ A cloner applies limits when creating the representation, so that one
51+ can represent only a subset of the cloned variable.
5052Before calling:method: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Cloner\\ VarCloner::cloneVar `,
5153you can configure these limits:
5254
@@ -154,6 +156,17 @@ Another option for doing the same could be::
154156
155157 // $output is now populated with the dump representation of $variable
156158
159+ ..tip ::
160+
161+ You can pass ``true `` to the second argument of the
162+ :method: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Dumper\\ AbstractDumper::dump `
163+ method to make it return the dump as a string::
164+
165+ $output = $dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($variable), true);
166+
167+ ..versionadded ::3.2
168+ The ability to return a string was introduced in Symfony 3.2.
169+
157170Dumpers implement the:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Dumper\\ DataDumperInterface `
158171interface that specifies the
159172:method: `dump(Data $data) <Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Dumper\\ DataDumperInterface::dump> `
@@ -167,7 +180,7 @@ Casters
167180
168181Objects and resources nested in a PHP variable are "cast" to arrays in the
169182intermediate:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Cloner\\ Data `
170- representation. You cantweak the array representation for each object/resource
183+ representation. You cancustomize the array representation for each object/resource
171184by hooking a Caster into this process. The component already includes many
172185casters for base PHP classes and other common classes.
173186
@@ -203,17 +216,21 @@ can also be registered for the same resource type/class/interface.
203216They are called in registration order.
204217
205218Casters are responsible for returning the properties of the object or resource
206- being cloned in an array. They are callables that acceptfour arguments:
219+ being cloned in an array. They are callables that acceptfive arguments:
207220
208- * the object or resource being casted,
209- * an array modelled for objects after PHP's native ``(array) `` cast operator,
221+ * the object or resource being casted;
222+ * an array modelled for objects after PHP's native ``(array) `` cast operator;
210223* a:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Cloner\\ Stub ` object
211- representing the main properties of the object (class, type, etc.),
212- * true/false when the caster is called nested in a structure or not.
224+ representing the main properties of the object (class, type, etc.);
225+ * true/false when the caster is called nested in a structure or not;
226+ * A bit field of:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ Caster`` `::EXCLUDE_*``
227+ constants.
213228
214229Here is a simple caster not doing anything::
215230
216- function myCaster($object, $array, $stub, $isNested)
231+ use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\Stub;
232+
233+ function myCaster($object, $array, Stub $stub, $isNested, $filter)
217234 {
218235 // ... populate/alter $array to your needs
219236
@@ -240,3 +257,50 @@ properties not in the class declaration).
240257..tip ::
241258
242259 Before writing your own casters, you should check the existing ones.
260+
261+ Adding Semantics with Metadata
262+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
263+
264+ ..versionadded ::3.2
265+ As of Symfony 3.2, casters can attach metadata attributes to
266+ :class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Cloner\\ Stub ` objects to inform
267+ dumpers about the precise type of the dumped values.
268+
269+ Since casters are hooked on specific classes or interfaces, they know about the
270+ objects they manipulate. By altering the ``$stub `` object (the third argument of
271+ any caster), one can transfer this knowledge to the resulting ``Data `` object,
272+ thus to dumpers. To help you do this (see the source code for how it works),
273+ the component comes with a set of wrappers for common additional semantics. You
274+ can use:
275+
276+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ ConstStub ` to wrap a value that is
277+ best represented by a PHP constant;
278+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ ClassStub ` to wrap a PHP identifier
279+ (*i.e. * a class name, a method name, an interface, *etc. *);
280+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ CutStub ` to replace big noisy
281+ objects/strings/*etc. * by ellipses;
282+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ CutArrayStub ` to keep only some
283+ useful keys of an array;
284+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ EnumStub ` to wrap a set of virtual
285+ values (*i.e. * values that do not exist as properties in the original PHP data
286+ structure, but are worth listing alongside with real ones);
287+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ LinkStub ` to wrap strings that can
288+ be turned into links by dumpers;
289+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ TraceStub ` and their
290+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ FrameStub ` and
291+ *:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ ArgsStub ` relatives to wrap PHP
292+ traces (used by:class: `Symfony\\ Component\\ VarDumper\\ Caster\\ ExceptionCaster `).
293+
294+ For example, if you know that your ``Product `` objects have a ``brochure `` property
295+ that holds a file name or a URL, you can wrap them in a ``LinkStub `` to tell
296+ ``HtmlDumper `` to make them clickable::
297+
298+ use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Caster\LinkStub;
299+ use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\Stub;
300+
301+ function ProductCaster(Product $object, $array, Stub $stub, $isNested, $filter = 0)
302+ {
303+ $array['brochure'] = new LinkStub($array['brochure']);
304+
305+ return $array;
306+ }