Add daily email for 2024-08-30

Revisiting the Null Object pattern in Drupal

source/_daily_emails/2024-08-30.md

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+---
+title: Revisiting the Null Object pattern in Drupal
+date: 2024-08-30
+permalink: daily/2024/08/30/revisiting-the-null-object-pattern-in-drupal
+tags:
+    - software-development
+    - drupal
+    - drupal-module
+    - open-source
+    - php
+    - design-patterns
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+    Whilst working on my secret side project, today I decided to revisit the Null User Drupal module.
+---
+
+The Null Object pattern is one of my favourite ways to DRY up code and reduce duplication.
+
+I wrote the [System User module][0] for a client project a number of years ago, which also included the [Null User module][1].
+
+If no system user is found, it returns a null (empty) user instead that returns null or empty values by default.
+
+Today, [I posted][2] [and tooted][3] 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.
+
+In the code, I search for a user with a given licence key.
+
+If a user is found, it is returned.
+
+If not, instead of returning FALSE or NULL, I return a null user object that I can treat the same as a real user.
+
+Now, when I create the node and assign an owner, I can just use `$account->id()` and it will always work if a user was found or not.
+
+This makes the code cleaner, simpler and easier to test and maintain.
+
+[0]: https://www.drupal.org/project/system_user
+[1]: https://www.drupal.org/project/null_user
+[2]: https://x.com/opdavies/status/1829183673725284772
+[3]: https://mastodon.social/@opdavies/113046773292848198