symfony – Imthiaz Blog

Symfony Doctrine Many to Many Relationship (ManyToMany)

April 24, 2018
Imthiaz
Programming
0 Comments

Many to many relations are one of the mostly used relations in the relational database. It took a while for me to figure how to properly configure this relation in Symfony Doctrine. I am sharing this so it might be useful for someone.

Used very simple example students and course. A student can opt for multiple courses and a single course can be opted by multiple students.

And Entity class should be like this…

namespace AppBundle\Entity;

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * Student
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="ab_student")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\StudentRepository")
 */
class Student
{
    /**
     * @var int
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="name", type="string", length=255)
     */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="email", type="string", length=255)
     */
    private $email;

    /**
     * @var \DateTime
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="dob", type="datetime")
     */
    private $dob;

    /**
     * @var ArrayCollection
     * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Course", inversedBy="students", fetch="EAGER")
     * @ORM\JoinTable(
     *     name="ab_student_2_course",
     *     joinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="course_id", referencedColumnName="id", nullable=false, onDelete="cascade")},
     *     inverseJoinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="student_id", referencedColumnName="id", nullable=false, onDelete="cascade")}
     * )
     */
    private $courses;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->courses = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    /**
     * Get id
     *
     * @return int
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Set name
     *
     * @param string $name
     *
     * @return Student
     */
    public function setName($name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get name
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    /**
     * Set email
     *
     * @param string $email
     *
     * @return Student
     */
    public function setEmail($email)
    {
        $this->email = $email;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get email
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getEmail()
    {
        return $this->email;
    }

    /**
     * Set dob
     *
     * @param \DateTime $dob
     *
     * @return Student
     */
    public function setDob($dob)
    {
        $this->dob = $dob;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get dob
     *
     * @return \DateTime
     */
    public function getDob()
    {
        return $this->dob;
    }

    /**
     * @return ArrayCollection
     */
    public function getCourses()
    {
        return $this->courses;
    }

    /**
     * @param ArrayCollection $courses
     */
    public function setCourses($courses)
    {
        $this->courses = $courses;
    }

}

/**

* @var string

* @ORM\Column(name="email", type="string", length=255)

private $email;

/**

* @var \DateTime

* @ORM\Column(name="dob", type="datetime")

private $dob;

/**

* @var ArrayCollection

* @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Course", inversedBy="students", fetch="EAGER")

* @ORM\JoinTable(

* name="ab_student_2_course",

* joinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="course_id", referencedColumnName="id", nullable=false, onDelete="cascade")},

* inverseJoinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="student_id", referencedColumnName="id", nullable=false, onDelete="cascade")}

* )

private $courses;

public function __construct()

namespace AppBundle\Entity;

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * Course
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="ab_course")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\CourseRepository")
 */
class Course
{
    /**
     * @var int
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="name", type="string", length=255)
     */
    private $name;


    /**
     * @var ArrayCollection
     * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Student", mappedBy="courses", cascade={"all"})
     */
    private $students;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->students = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    /**
     * Get id
     *
     * @return int
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Set name
     *
     * @param string $name
     *
     * @return Course
     */
    public function setName($name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get name
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    /**
     * @return ArrayCollection
     */
    public function getStudents()
    {
        return $this->students;
    }

    /**
     * @param ArrayCollection $students
     */
    public function setStudents($students)
    {
        $this->students = $students;
    }

}

/**

* @var string

* @ORM\Column(name="name", type="string", length=255)

private $name;

/**

* @var ArrayCollection

* @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Student", mappedBy="courses", cascade={"all"})

private $students;

public function __construct()

{

$this->students = new ArrayCollection();

}

The above entities will create the following SQL and it will also create the cross-reference table.

CREATE TABLE ab_student 
  ( 
     id    INT auto_increment NOT NULL, 
     name  VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, 
     email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, 
     dob   DATETIME NOT NULL, 
     PRIMARY KEY(id) 
  ) 
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 
COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci 
engine = innodb; 

CREATE TABLE ab_student_2_course 
  ( 
     course_id  INT NOT NULL, 
     student_id INT NOT NULL, 
     INDEX idx_87d76467591cc992 (course_id), 
     INDEX idx_87d76467cb944f1a (student_id), 
     PRIMARY KEY(course_id, student_id) 
  ) 
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 
COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci 
engine = innodb; 

CREATE TABLE ab_course 
  ( 
     id   INT auto_increment NOT NULL, 
     name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, 
     PRIMARY KEY(id) 
  ) 
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 
COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci 
engine = innodb; 

ALTER TABLE ab_student_2_course 
  ADD CONSTRAINT fk_87d76467591cc992 FOREIGN KEY (course_id) REFERENCES 
  ab_student (id) ON DELETE CASCADE; 

ALTER TABLE ab_student_2_course 
  ADD CONSTRAINT fk_87d76467cb944f1a FOREIGN KEY (student_id) REFERENCES 
  ab_course (id) ON DELETE CASCADE;

COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci

engine = innodb;

CREATE TABLE ab_student_2_course

(

course_id INT NOT NULL,

student_id INT NOT NULL,

INDEX idx_87d76467591cc992 (course_id),

INDEX idx_87d76467cb944f1a (student_id),

PRIMARY KEY(course_id, student_id)

)

DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8

COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci

engine = innodb;

CREATE TABLE ab_course

Hope this helps 😉

Symfony: Adding custom route by code during runtime

March 4, 2017
Imthiaz
Programming

During development we always come across situation where you need to add custom routes based on some settings based from the user. In this case we cannot use any of the standard methods like annotation and configuration files in symfony.

In this case you need to use a services and hooks to inject your custom route rules during runtime.

1) In your bundles under Resources\Config\services.yml add the following

services:
  Custom.Router:
    class: [BundleNamespace]\Classes\RoutingService
    arguments: [@service_container,@request_stack]
    tags:
      - { name: routing.loader }

services:

Custom.Router:

class: [BundleNamespace]\Classes\RoutingService

arguments: [@service_container,@request_stack]

tags:

- { name: routing.loader }

2) Now we need to create a class RoutingService.php

< ?php
namespace [BundleNamespace]\Classes\Service;

use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerAwareInterface;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerAwareTrait;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerInterface;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RequestStack;
use Symfony\Component\Config\Loader\LoaderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Config\Loader\LoaderResolverInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Route;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

class RoutingService implements LoaderInterface , ContainerAwareInterface
{
    use ContainerAwareTrait;

    function __construct(ContainerInterface $container = null, RequestStack $request_stack = null)
    {
        $this->setContainer($container);
        $this->setRequestStack($request_stack);
    }

    public function load($resource, $type = null)
    {
        $routes = new RouteCollection();

        $searchRoute = new Route('/{siteSlug}/search/index.php', array(
            '_controller' => '[BundleNamespace]:[Controller]:[Action]',
        ), array(
            'siteSlug' => '[a-zA-Z0-9-]+'
        ));
        $routes->add('search_page', $searchRoute);

        return routes;
    }

    public function supports($resource, $type = null)
    {
        return 'dynamic' === $type;
    }

    public function getResolver()
    {
        // needed, but can be blank, unless you want to load other resources
        // and if you do, using the Loader base class is easier (see below)
    }

    public function setResolver(LoaderResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        // same as above
    }
}

< ?php

namespace [BundleNamespace]\Classes\Service;

use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerAwareInterface;

use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerAwareTrait;

use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerInterface;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RequestStack;

use Symfony\Component\Config\Loader\LoaderInterface;

use Symfony\Component\Config\Loader\LoaderResolverInterface;

use Symfony\Component\Routing\Route;

use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

class RoutingService implements LoaderInterface , ContainerAwareInterface

{

use ContainerAwareTrait;

function __construct(ContainerInterface $container = null, RequestStack $request_stack = null)

{

$this->setContainer($container);

$this->setRequestStack($request_stack);

}

public function load($resource, $type = null)

{

$routes = new RouteCollection();

$searchRoute = new Route('/{siteSlug}/search/index.php', array(

'_controller' => '[BundleNamespace]:[Controller]:[Action]',

), array(

'siteSlug' => '[a-zA-Z0-9-]+'

));

$routes->add('search_page', $searchRoute);

return routes;

}

public function supports($resource, $type = null)

{

return 'dynamic' === $type;

}

public function getResolver()

{

// needed, but can be blank, unless you want to load other resources

// and if you do, using the Loader base class is easier (see below)

}

public function setResolver(LoaderResolverInterface $resolver)

{

// same as above

}

3) Now in your main routing.yml please include these lines

custom_dynamic:
    resource: .
    type: dynamic

custom_dynamic:

resource: .

type: dynamic

4) Once you are done please make sure you clear cache both env

./app/console cache:clear
./app/console cache:clear --env=prod

1 2	./app/console cache:clear ./app/console cache:clear --env=prod

5) Now the custom route should be loaded in.. Please make sure if you add more routes make sure the cache is cleared.

ORM Designer 2 – Why do you need it?

April 26, 2014
Imthiaz
Software

For sometime now I have been busy working with Symfony 2. The more I work with this framework the more I am falling in love with it. There are so many features for which I love Symfony. One such is tight integration with Doctrine ORM.

Symfony comes with set of command line tools which helps you with your ORM entites creation. But it was not visual and is a one shot creation tool and if you need to update or make any changes it was not possible, you need to edit these files definations manually. I was in hunt for a good tool which will make my life easier for managing my entities and its relations. So I was Googling and I found this great tool ORM Designer.

This tool has an amazing intergration with Symfony. You can import the existing entities into the designer and make any changes to the one and export the same back to the project. It supports YAML, XML and best part of all Annotation.

Why do you need it?

To be honest it saves a lot of time editing your entities and easily exporting it
You get clear view of what you are dealing with and how your relationships are mapped
You don’t have to remember all the annotation and it’s constraints
Avoid relationships mistakes which I do all the time
Error free definitions

Pros

Easy import of existing Symfony projects
Visualisation of Entities and their relationships
Organising Entities by Bundles
Easy export of modifications back to your Symfony2 project

Cons

Editors needs more shortcuts and easy to copy paste fields across entities
Drag and Drop Features
Should remember the imported source file, and facility to update modification from the source file
They should be seriously thinking of a different pricing model. USD 400 is lot of money !! Make it cheaper so that It can reach more developers.

Why do you start using ORM Designer today as they offer 14 days fully functional trial version. Share your feedback how it goes 😉