yii2/docs/guide/basic-components.md

Components

Note: This chapter is under development.

Object Configuration

The yii\base\Object class introduces a uniform way of configuring objects. Any descendant class of yii\base\Object should declare its constructor (if needed) in the following way so that it can be properly configured:

class MyClass extends \yii\base\Object
{
    public function __construct($param1, $param2, $config = [])
    {
        // ... initialization before configuration is applied

        parent::__construct($config);
    }

    public function init()
    {
        parent::init();

        // ... initialization after configuration is applied
    }
}

In the above example, the last parameter of the constructor must take a configuration array which contains name-value pairs that will be used to initialize the object's properties at the end of the constructor. You can override the init() method to do initialization work after the configuration is applied.

By following this convention, you will be able to create and configure new objects using a configuration array like the following:

$object = Yii::createObject([
    'class' => 'MyClass',
    'property1' => 'abc',
    'property2' => 'cde',
], [$param1, $param2]);