Allow access to the Reference name and the resolved asset

[dlundgren]

While working on deduplication of assets in my own library, I found that I had to use a full copy of the AssetReference class. Since the resolve method and name properties are private, extending the class is not possible, and there are no methods available to retrieve just the asset or name of the Reference.

I'd like to add the following to the AssetReference class:

• getName returns the name of the reference
• getAsset returns the result of resolve

[bennothommo]

@dlundgren thanks for your contribution. Would you be able to provide a use case for why it would be needed to access the name and asset directly?

[dlundgren]

I have something similar to WordPress' wp_enqueue_style and wp_enqueue_script that allows the assets to be registered and used as needed.

In my tests, the deeper the references are, the more likely I was to end up with duplicated content. So I was using the reference name to deduplicate the reference from deeper in the collection, without triggering the asset resolution when it's not needed.

I think I was using the asset object to replace the reference in some spots, but I no longer see that code in my repo, so I can probably ask for that later if needed.

[LukeTowers]

@dlundgren would you be willing to provide a code example of how you're using these methods?

@bennothommo can you think of any reason why we should have any private properties or methods in this library at all instead of just protected ones?

[bennothommo]

@LukeTowers private does have its uses - it allows a class to define methods that affect it and only it, with the presumption that if another class extends upon it, it has to provide its own implementation of the method as opposed to relying on the parent class. I find it less useful for properties (especially those that are necessary for normal class functionality, again with a presumption that class may be extended upon).

[LukeTowers]

@dlundgren any updates on this?

[dlundgren]

Thanks for reminding me about this, I'm still looking at using this, but I've been working on other aspects of my project at the moment.

Here is the relevant code I'm using. The Reference object has getName and getAsset as defined in this PR, and the rest of the code is basically copy pasta from Assetic\Asset\AssetReference

https://gist.github.com/dlundgren/64c9d6892d3a465f9e52fbdada317973

[LukeTowers]

@dlundgren is this something you still need?

[dlundgren]

It would be nice to have this available without Reflection, which is my current method of accessing the data.

However, I do understand I'm the only one to have asked for this data.