Is it possible to change private visibility to protected?

[solventt]

When I launch functional tests I don't need exception trace log output because Its huge. I want to see only an exception type, code, message, file and line. So I decided to override the formatExceptionFragment method (remove 4 strings forming trace output) of PlainTextErrorRenderer. But the method is private and called from the __invoke method. And so I cant override formatExceptionFragment in child class - to do it - I should also copy __invoke to child class. But then there is no point in inheritance either - you get a separate class, almost identical to PlainTextErrorRenderer, except for 4 lines.

It seems redundant to me to copy almost all the code from PlainTextErrorRenderer just to remove the 4 lines of code responsible for the trace output. Is it possible to change private visibility to protected of the formatExceptionFragment method?

[zelding]

I think you should create your own error renderer;
Implement the Slim\Interfaces\ErrorRendererInterface, and use that during tests

[l0gicgate]

I would be open to making those methods protected for extensibility. I don't have a strong opinion on that @solventt

[odan]

I think these methods should not be set to protected, otherwise we have to deal with unexpected breaking changes later on.
A custom error handler would be a better approach (as mentioned by zelding).

[l0gicgate]

@odan considering Slim 4 is in a pretty stable place right now changing the method modifier to protected wouldn't be the end of the world. If we were at the beginning of a release cycle I may have a different opinion on that. I don't foresee us having to introduce breaking changes to those renderers. While not impossible that we eventually break things, letting users extend these renderers at their own risk would be fine with me.

[solventt]

@zelding Of course I did. I wrote above that now I have almost a copy of existing PlainTextErrorRenderer. I only suggested it.

[eerison]

@odan considering Slim 4 is in a pretty stable place right now changing the method modifier to protected wouldn't be the end of the world. If we were at the beginning of a release cycle I may have a different opinion on that. I don't foresee us having to introduce breaking changes to those renderers. While not impossible that we eventually break things, letting users extend these renderers at their own risk would be fine with me.

I totally agree with @odan , if you think in keep this project up to date, then don't let users extend your code.

If someone wants to change the behavior, then implementing the interface and inject the new one.

And if he want to reuse some code that exists, then he can just decorate the class and inject.

I faced this problem on other OSS projects and we need to keep an code that must be compatible with 2 ways. Then IMHO don't do this.

[eerison]

@zelding Of course I did. I wrote above that now I have almost a copy of existing PlainTextErrorRenderer. I only suggested it.

Did you try to decorate this render?

YourPlainTextErrorRender implement RenderInterface
construct(PlainTextErrorRender $render)

Public function medthodA()
This->render->methodA();
/// your change

Note 1 : sorry for the ugly example, I'm on phone