Elegant way to create an API URL

gistfile1.php

<?php

/**
 * Elegant way to create an API URL
 *
 * Usage:
 *     $this->getResourceUrl('/product/%s/id-%d', 'edit', 13);
 *     // will produce http://domain.com/product/edit/id-13
 *
 *     // A resource can be an array to embed this method in an other method
 *     public function anotherMethod($resource, $data)
 *     {
 *         // and resource is ['/product/%s/id-%d', 'edit', 13]
 *         $url = $this->getResourceUrl($resource)
 *     }
 *     
 *     // Also a resource can be just a simple string '/products'
 */
protected function getResourceUrl()
{
    $args = func_get_args();
    $resource = array_shift($args);

    if (is_array($resource)) {
        $args = $resource;
        $resource = array_shift($args);
    }

    return $this->apiRestUrl . vsprintf($resource, $args);
}

Nice solution. I made a Javascript equivalent to this. Made a few changes to it. The getRessourceFunction will return a new function which than can be used to generate URLs. Don't know if this is possible in PHP.

/**
 * Javascript Solution
 * 
 * Usage:
 *  
 *   var getProductRessource = getRessourceFunction('/product/%s/id-%s');
 *  
 *        getProductRessource('edit', 13) // will return "/product/edit/id-13"
 *  
 * Supports simple partial application like: 
 *
 *  var getPageRessource = getRessourceFunction('/page/%s/%s');
 *     
 *       getPageRessource('news', 1)); // "/page/news/1"
 *
 * or 
 *
 *       getPageRessource('news') // "/page/news"
 * 
 */
function getRessourceFunction ( patternString ) {
  var pattern = patternString.split(/\%s/);
  return function (/* params */){
    var res    = '', length = arguments.length;
    for ( var i=0;i<length;i++){
      res += pattern[i] + arguments[i];
    }
    return res;
  }
}

Try it here: http://codepen.io/FWeinb/pen/bc3b819b32edfe82fd67492002c7fc32 ( open dev tools)

Yes its possible in PHP with the Closure system (anonymous functions!), I'll check if it is relevant to do this in PHP. Thanks for your idea!

Glad you like it. I just tried it in PHP. This should work in 5.3 and above.

<?php
  function getResourceFunction ( $resource ){
      return function() use ($resource){
        return vsprintf($resource, func_get_args());
      };
  };

  $getProductRessource = getResourceFunction ( '/product/%s/id-%s' );


  echo $getProductRessource ( 'edit', 13 );
?>

There is no partial application because vsprintf doesn't seem to support it.