Doxygen - PHP traits

Question

We have grown fond of Doxygen, it certainly appears to create the best looking documentation.

However, we use PHP and Traits are simply ignored / absent from generated documentation.

Are we missing a trick here, or are Traits simply not compatible?

Answer 1

Traits are just not supported by doxygen.

Since PHP does not support inheritance from multiple classes, traits are the way to extend a class by functions of multiple "classes".

C++ does support inheritance from multiple classes, so try this filter:

// make traits to classes
$regexp = '#trait([\s]+[\S]+[\s]*){#';
$replace = 'class$1{';
$source = preg_replace($regexp, $replace, $source);

// use traits by extending them (classes that not extending a class)
$regexp = '#class([\s]+[\S]+[\s]*)(implements[\s]+[\S]+[\s]*)?{[\s]+use([^;]+);#';
$replace = 'class$1 extends $3 $2 {';
$source = preg_replace($regexp, $replace, $source);

// use traits by extending them (classes that already extending a class)
$regexp = '#class([\s]+[\S]+[\s]+extends[\s]+[\S]+[\s]*)(implements[\s]+[\S]+[\s]*){[\s]+use([^;]+);#';
$replace = 'class$1, $3 $2{';
$source = preg_replace($regexp, $replace, $source);

This filter does:

1. Transforms traits to classes

   trait MyTrait{ ... }
   

   becomes

   class MyTrait{ ... }
   

2. Transform "using" traits into "extending" traits

   class MyClass{
       use MyTrait1, MyTrait2;
       ...
   }
   

   becomes

   class MyClass extends MyTrait, MyTrait2{
       ...
   }
   

Doxygen documents this as a multiple inheritance. Maybe this works for you.

You can find this and some more doxygen filters for PHP in my repository on GitHub.