Editorial note: The appropriate PHP bug that requests behavior this function emulates is http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=42823 . This function does NOT work if there has been an array($obj, 'nonStaticMethod') registered in the autoload stack--while the autoload will be removed, it will be re-registered incorrectly.
The spl_autoload_register() method registers functions in its stack in the order that spl_autoload_register() was called, and subsequently if you want an autoload function to override previous autoload functions you will either need to unregister the previous ones or change the order of the autoload stack.
For example, say in your default implementation of an autoload function you throw an exception if the class cannot be found, or perhaps a fatal error. Later on in your code you add a second implementation of an autoload function which will load a library that the previous method would fail on. This will not call the second autoloader method first, but rather will continue to error out on the first method.
As previously mentioned, you can unregister the existing autoloader that errors out, or you can create a mechanism for unregistering and re-registering the autoloaders in the order you want.
Here is a sample/example of how you might consider re-registering autoloaders so that the newest autoloader is called first, and the oldest last:
<?php
// Editorial notes: Small bug and compatibility fixes
// added to the function
function spl_autoload_preregister( $autoload ) {
// No functions currently in the stack.
if ( ($funcs = spl_autoload_functions()) === false ) {
spl_autoload_register($autoload);
} else {
// Unregister existing autoloaders...
$compat =
version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.1.2', '<=') &&
version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.1.0', '>=');
foreach ($funcs as $func) {
if (is_array($func)) {
// :TRICKY: There are some compatibility issues and some
// places where we need to error out
$reflector = new ReflectionMethod($func[0], $func[1]);
if (!$reflector->isStatic()) {
throw new Exception('
This function is not compatible
with non-static object methods due to PHP Bug #44144.
');
}
// Suprisingly, spl_autoload_register supports the
// Class::staticMethod callback format, although call_user_func doesn't
if ($compat) $func = implode('::', $func);
}
spl_autoload_unregister($func);
}
// Register the new one, thus putting it at the front of the stack...
spl_autoload_register($autoload);
// Now, go back and re-register all of our old ones.
foreach ($funcs as $func) {
spl_autoload_register($func);
}
}
}
?>
Note: I have not tested this for overhead, so I am not 100% sure what the performance implication of the above example are.