oliverdavies.uk/content/node.f529894e-5912-4e77-91a3-d78b9cbf2584.json

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    "title": [
        {
            "value": "Revisiting the Null Object pattern in Drupal"
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    "created": [
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            "value": "2024-08-30T00:00:00+00:00"
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            "value": "\n          <p>The Null Object pattern is one of my favourite ways to DRY up code and reduce duplication.<\/p>\n\n<p>I wrote the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/system_user\">System User module<\/a> for a client project a number of years ago, which also included the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/null_user\">Null User module<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>If no system user is found, it returns a null (empty) user instead that returns null or empty values by default.<\/p>\n\n<p>Today, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/opdavies\/status\/1829183673725284772\">I posted<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@opdavies\/113046773292848198\">and tooted<\/a> a screenshot of some code from a side project I'm working on, which I realised would be another good time to use the Null User module.<\/p>\n\n<p>In the code, I search for a user with a given licence key.<\/p>\n\n<p>If a user is found, it is returned.<\/p>\n\n<p>If not, instead of returning FALSE or NULL, I return a null user object that I can treat the same as a real user.<\/p>\n\n<p>Now, when I create the node and assign an owner, I can just use <code>$account-&gt;id()<\/code> and it will always work if a user was found or not.<\/p>\n\n<p>This makes the code cleaner, simpler and easier to test and maintain.<\/p>\n\n        ",
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            "processed": "\n          <p>The Null Object pattern is one of my favourite ways to DRY up code and reduce duplication.<\/p>\n\n<p>I wrote the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/system_user\">System User module<\/a> for a client project a number of years ago, which also included the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/null_user\">Null User module<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>If no system user is found, it returns a null (empty) user instead that returns null or empty values by default.<\/p>\n\n<p>Today, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/opdavies\/status\/1829183673725284772\">I posted<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@opdavies\/113046773292848198\">and tooted<\/a> a screenshot of some code from a side project I'm working on, which I realised would be another good time to use the Null User module.<\/p>\n\n<p>In the code, I search for a user with a given licence key.<\/p>\n\n<p>If a user is found, it is returned.<\/p>\n\n<p>If not, instead of returning FALSE or NULL, I return a null user object that I can treat the same as a real user.<\/p>\n\n<p>Now, when I create the node and assign an owner, I can just use <code>$account-&gt;id()<\/code> and it will always work if a user was found or not.<\/p>\n\n<p>This makes the code cleaner, simpler and easier to test and maintain.<\/p>\n\n        ",
            "summary": null
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