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08.

The Observer Class

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Now that we've finished our subject class - GameApplication - where we can call subscribe() if we want to be notified after a fight finishes - let's turn to creating an observer that will calculate how much XP the winner should earn and whether or not the character should level up.

But first, we need to add a few things to the Character class to help. On top, add private int $level that will default to 1 and a private int $xp that will default to 0:

87 lines | src/Character/Character.php
// ... lines 1 - 8
class Character
{
// ... lines 11 - 15
private int $level = 1;
private int $xp = 0;
// ... lines 18 - 85
}

Down here a bit, add public function getLevel(): int which will return $this->level... and another convenience method called addXp() that will accept the new $xpEarned and return the new XP number. Inside say $this->xp += $xpEarned... and return $this->xp:

87 lines | src/Character/Character.php
// ... lines 1 - 8
class Character
{
// ... lines 11 - 65
public function getLevel(): int
{
return $this->level;
}
public function addXp(int $xpEarned): int
{
$this->xp += $xpEarned;
return $this->xp;
}
// ... lines 77 - 85
}

Finally, right after, I'm going to paste in one more method called levelUp(). We'll call this when a character levels up: it increases the $level, $maxHealth, and $baseDamage:

99 lines | src/Character/Character.php
// ... lines 1 - 8
class Character
{
// ... lines 11 - 65
public function levelUp(): void
{
// +%15 bonus to stats
$bonus = 1.15;
$this->level++;
$this->maxHealth = floor($this->maxHealth * $bonus);
$this->baseDamage = floor($this->baseDamage * $bonus);
// todo: level up attack and armor type
}
// ... lines 77 - 97
}

We could also level-up the attack and armor types if we wanted.

Creating the Observer Class

Ok, now let's create that observer. Inside the src/Observer/ directory, add a new PHP class. Let's call it XpEarnedObserver. And all of our observers need to implement the GameObserverInterface. Go to "Code generate", or Command+N on a Mac to implement the onFightFinished() method:

14 lines | src/Observer/XpEarnedObserver.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
namespace App\Observer;
use App\FightResult;
class XpEarnedObserver implements GameObserverInterface
{
public function onFightFinished(FightResult $fightResult): void
{
// TODO: Implement onFightFinished() method.
}
}

For the guts of onFightFinished(), I'm going to delegate the real work to a service called XpCalculator.

If you downloaded the course code, you should have a tutorial/ directory with XpCalculator.php inside. Copy that, in src/, create a new Service/ directory and paste that inside. You can check this out if you want to, but it's nothing fancy:

59 lines | src/Service/XpCalculator.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
namespace App\Service;
use App\Character\Character;
class XpCalculator
{
public function addXp(Character $winner, int $enemyLevel): void
{
$xpEarned = $this->calculateXpEarned($winner->getLevel(), $enemyLevel);
$totalXp = $winner->addXp($xpEarned);
$xpForNextLvl = $this->getXpForNextLvl($winner->getLevel());
if ($totalXp >= $xpForNextLvl) {
$winner->levelUp();
}
}
private function calculateXpEarned(int $winnerLevel, int $loserLevel): int
{
$baseXp = 30;
$rawXp = $baseXp * $loserLevel;
$levelDiff = $winnerLevel - $loserLevel;
return match (true) {
$levelDiff === 0 => $rawXp,
// You get less XP when the opponent is lower level than you
$levelDiff > 0 => $rawXp - floor($loserLevel * 0.20),
// You get extra XP when the opponent is higher level than you
$levelDiff < 0 => $rawXp + floor($loserLevel * 0.20),
};
}
private function getXpForNextLvl(int $currentLvl): int
{
$baseXp = 100;
$xpNeededForCurrentLvl = $this->fibonacciProgressionFormula($baseXp, $currentLvl);
$xpNeededForNextLvl = $this->fibonacciProgressionFormula($baseXp, $currentLvl + 1);
// Since the character holds the total amount of XP earned we need to include
// the XP needed for the current level.
return $xpNeededForCurrentLvl + $xpNeededForNextLvl;
}
private function fibonacciProgressionFormula(int $baseXp, int $currentLvl): int
{
$currentLvl--;
if ($currentLvl === 0) {
return 0;
}
return $baseXp * ($currentLvl-1) + ($baseXp * ($currentLvl));
}
}

It takes the Character that won, the enemy's level, and it figures out how much XP it should award to the winner. Then, if they're eligible to level up, it levels-up that character.

Over in XpEarnedObserver, we can use that. Create a constructor so that we can autowire in a private readonly (readonly just to be super trendy) XpCalculator $xpCalculator:

23 lines | src/Observer/XpEarnedObserver.php
// ... lines 1 - 5
use App\Service\XpCalculator;
class XpEarnedObserver implements GameObserverInterface
{
public function __construct(
private readonly XpCalculator $xpCalculator
) {
}
// ... lines 14 - 21
}

Below, let's set the $winner to a variable - $fightResult->getWinner() - and $loser to $fightResult->getLoser(). Finally, say $this->xpCalculator->addXp() and pass $winner and $loser->getLevel():

23 lines | src/Observer/XpEarnedObserver.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class XpEarnedObserver implements GameObserverInterface
{
// ... lines 10 - 14
public function onFightFinished(FightResult $fightResult): void
{
$winner = $fightResult->getWinner();
$loser = $fightResult->getLoser();
$this->xpCalculator->addXp($winner, $loser->getLevel());
}
}

Connecting the Subject & Observer

Beautiful! The subject and observer are now done. The final step is to instantiate the observer and make it subscribe to the subject: GameApplication. We're going to do this manually inside of GameCommand.

Open up src/Command/GameCommand.php, and find execute(), which is where we're currently initializing all of the code inside our app. In a few minutes, we'll see a more Symfony way of connecting all of this. For right now, say $xpObserver = new XpEarnedObserver()... and pass that a new XpCalculator() service so it's happy. Then, we can say $this->game (which is the GameApplication) ->subscribe($xpObserver):

105 lines | src/Command/GameCommand.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
use App\Observer\XpEarnedObserver;
use App\Service\XpCalculator;
// ... lines 10 - 16
class GameCommand extends Command
{
// ... lines 19 - 25
protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int
{
$xpObserver = new XpEarnedObserver(
new XpCalculator()
);
$this->game->subscribe($xpObserver);
// ... lines 32 - 47
}
// ... lines 49 - 103
}

So we're subscribing the observer before we actually run our app down here.

This means... we're ready! But, just to make it a bit more obvious if this is working, head back to Character and add one more function here called getXp(), which will return int via return $this->xp:

104 lines | src/Character/Character.php
// ... lines 1 - 8
class Character
{
// ... lines 11 - 89
public function getXp(): int
{
return $this->xp;
}
// ... lines 94 - 102
}

This will allow us, inside of GameCommand... if you scroll down a bit to printResults()... here we go... to add a few things like $io->writeIn('XP: ' . $player->getXp())... and the same thing for Final Level, with $player->getLevel():

107 lines | src/Command/GameCommand.php
// ... lines 1 - 16
class GameCommand extends Command
{
// ... lines 19 - 78
private function printResult(FightResult $fightResult, Character $player, SymfonyStyle $io)
{
// ... lines 81 - 99
$io->writeln('Damage received: ' . $fightResult->getDamageReceived());
$io->writeln('XP: ' . $player->getXp());
$io->writeln('Final Level: ' . $player->getLevel());
// ... lines 103 - 104
}
}

Ok team - testing time! Spin over, run

./bin/console app:game:play

and let's play as the fighter, because that's still one of the toughest characters. And... awesome! Because we won, we received 30 XP. We're still Level 1, so let's fight a few more times. Aw... we lost, so no XP. Now we have 60 XP... 90 XP... woo! We leveled up! It says Final Level: 2. It's working!

What's great about this is that GameApplication doesn't need to know or care about the XP and the leveling up logic. It just notifies its subscribers and they can do whatever they want.

Next, let's see how we could wire all of this up using Symfony's container. We'll also talk about the benefits of this pattern and what parts of SOLID it helps with.