How to find annotations in a PHP5 object?

Question

I would like to be able to implement custom annotations in my PHP5 objects, and I'd like to learn how the whole process works by building my own parser.

To start, though, I need to know how to FIND the annotations.

Is there a Reflection method that I am missing, or is there another way?

For example, I'd like to be able to find the following annotation in a class:

/**
 * @MyParam: myvalue
 */

Answer 1

You can do this using ReflectionClass::getDocComment, example:

function getClassAnnotations($class)
{       
    $r = new ReflectionClass($class);
    $doc = $r->getDocComment();
    preg_match_all('#@(.*?)\n#s', $doc, $annotations);
    return $annotations[1];
}

Live demo: http://codepad.viper-7.com/u8bFT4