static_reflection_and_autoload.md

Static Reflection and Autoload

Rector is using static reflection to load code without running it since version 0.10. That means your classes are found without composer autoload and without running them. Rector will find them and work with them as you have PSR-4 autoload properly setup. This comes very useful in legacy projects or projects with custom autoload.

Do you want to know more about it? Continue here:

• From Doctrine Annotations Parser to Static Reflection
• Legacy Refactoring made Easy with Static Reflection
• Zero Config Analysis with Static Reflection - from PHPStan

use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;

return static function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
    // Rector is using static reflection to load code without running it - see https://phpstan.org/blog/zero-config-analysis-with-static-reflection
    $rectorConfig->autoloadPaths([
        // discover specific file
        __DIR__ . '/file-with-functions.php',
        // or full directory
        __DIR__ . '/project-without-composer',
    ]);

Include Files

Do you need to include constants, class aliases or custom autoloader? Use bootstrap files:

use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;

return static function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
    $rectorConfig->bootstrapFiles([
        __DIR__ . '/constants.php',
        __DIR__ . '/project/special/autoload.php',
    ]);
};

Listed files will be executed like:

include $filePath;

Troubleshooting

Sometime, when we run Rector to class that detect children class, like \Rector\Privatization\Rector\Class_\FinalizeClassesWithoutChildrenRector, we may experience that parent class changed to final while it has children class, it because of the PHPStan\Reflection\ReflectionProvider cannot get all classes on scanning it on usage via FamilyRelationsAnalyzer service.

To avoid this issue, you may dump all classes via composer:

composer dump-autoload -o

before run the rector.

If the false positive still happen, you can skip the rule applied as last resort to do:

use Rector\Privatization\Rector\Class_\FinalizeClassesWithoutChildrenRector;

    $rectorConfig->skip([
        FinalizeClassesWithoutChildrenRector::class => [
            // classes that has children, and not detected even with composer dump-autoload -o
            __DIR__ . '/src/HasChildClass.php',
        ],
    ]);

Dealing with "Class ... was not found while trying to analyse it..."

Sometimes you may encounter this error (see here for an example) even if the class is there and it seems to work properly with other tools (e.g. PHPStan).

In this case you may want to try one of the following solutions:

Register

    $rectorConfig->autoloadPaths([
        // the path to the exact class file
        __DIR__ . '/vendor/acme/my-custom-dependency/src/Your/Own/Namespace/TheAffectedClass.php',
        // or you can specify a wider scope
        __DIR__ . '/vendor/acme/my-custom-dependency/src',
        // WARNING: beware of performances, try to narrow down the path
        //          as much as you can or you will slow down each run
    ]);

Register the path of the class to composer.json's "files" config, eg:

    "autoload-dev": {
        "files": [
            "vendor/acme/my-custom-dependency/src/Your/Own/Namespace/TheAffectedClass.php"
        ]
    }

After that, run:

composer dump-autoload

and re-run the rector.