Checking requirements in the constructor

[ghost]

In Document.php's __construct():

// Initialize input data
if ($this->isNewDocument() && is_array($data)) {
    foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
        $this->getProperty($key);
    }
}

What is the purpose of $this->getProperty($key)? Shouldn't it be $this->setProperty($key, $value)? That would allow us to validate already in the constructor and do stuff like:

try {
    $post = new Post($_POST);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // react to bad input
}

Or am I missing something? :)

[ghost]

This would also require that Shanty_Mongo_Exception know which field triggered the validation error, something like:

class Shanty_Mongo_Exception extends Exception
{
    function __construct( $message, $field = null )
{
    $this->message = $message;
    $this->field = $field;
}

function getField()
{
    return $this->field;
}

}

And then in Mongo/Document.php setProperty, we can:

// Throw exception if value is not valid
if (!is_null($value) && !$validators->isValid($value)) {
    require_once 'Shanty/Mongo/Exception.php';
    throw new Shanty_Mongo_Exception(implode($validators->getMessages(), "\n"), $property);
}

... also tell the exception which property was the culprit.