phpstorm-metadata-example

Examples of https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/ide-advanced-metadata.html

The PHP plugin for PhpStorm/Intellij uses .phpstorm.meta.php internally to handle

• General PHP with auto completions for things like curl_setopt constants and return types from array_shift etc.
• PhpUnit createTestProxy methods etc.
• Possible reflection parameter values.

The meta files can be found by using the keyboard (Open File->Open File->.phpstorm.meta.php), open file twice searches dependencies including the auto added jetbrains ones as well as project code, or by manually navigating to :-

• External Dependencies->meta->.phpstorm.meta.php
• External Dependencies->meta->phpunit->.phpstorm.meta.php
• External Dependencies->Reflection->.phpstorm.meta.php (surprised this is not under meta so may move)

These give you a range of examples.

Other examples

Within the project there is an ExampleUsage class which uses TestFactory and ChildFactory to example usage in a way that can be played with simply. Including an example of masking.

Notes

I cannot seem to find a way to generate a list of x type from a passed value. E.g. \DomDocument[] from \DomDocument:: class.

You can run inspect code and there should be no Undefined symbols under Undefined symbols in the results. You can then delete the contents of the .phpstorm.meta.php file and see how the results change etc.

Generic PHP doc signature

PHPDoc now allows generic signatures for instances or ::class references.

For example (phpdoc_example.php)

/**
 * @template T
 *
 * @param T $a
 *
 * @return T
 */
function a($a) {
    return $a;
}

//no warnings and auto completes
a(new DOMDocument())->cloneNode();
a(DOMDocument::class)->cloneNode(); 

Though it also does not seem to be able to return a collection of the generic type using :-

@return T[]

There might be a hidden way or someone somewhere may standardise it if poked enough.