title: What's the most efficient way to set pipeline flags for file upload and processing?
body: <p>Sorry for the general nature of this question which might need to be broken into several sub-questions.  I'm trying to make an already working application generic so it can more readily be expanded in the future.  I'm using the Codeigniter framework.  </p>
  
  <p>The application uploads an ASCII file and performs several operations on it, transforming its format and its content, calculating features from it, and writing results to the DB and to output files that are posted on the site.</p>
  
  <p>I'd like to take more advantage of the OOD aspect of Codeigniter/php and write a function (probably in my uploadController class) (SetPipelineFlags()) that will take as input 2 classes (objects) with numerous attributes defined by user input and compare them and then output a flags object which I can then use at various points to guide the upload process.  </p>
  
  <p>I've looked at using ArrayObject, but don't have much experience with it yet.  So are there things that I haven't heard of that might be useful in thinking of how to redesign this upload process?  I'll take any suggestions.  Need a kick in the rump to get started!  Thanks!    </p>