{{Doctrine_Record}} is one of the most essential components of Doctrine ORM. The class is a wrapper for database row but along with that it speficies what relations it has
on other components and what columns it has. It may access the related components, hence its refered as an ActiveRecord.
The classes that inherit {{Doctrine_Record}} are called components. There should be atleast one component for each database table.
There are couple of ways for creating new records. Propably the easiest is using native php new -operator. The other ways are calling {{Doctrine_Table::create()}} or {{Doctrine_Connection::create()}}. The last two exists only for backward compatibility. The recommended way of creating new objects is the new operator.
<code type="php">
$user = $conn->create("User");
// alternative way:
$table = $conn->getTable("User");
$user = $table->create();
// the simpliest way:
$user = new User();
// records support array access
$user['name'] = 'John Locke';
// save user into database
$user->save();
</code>
Every record has an object identifier, which is an internal unique identifier. You can get the object identifier with the oid() method. Basically two objects are considered the same if they share the same object identifier.
+++ Properties
Each assigned column property of {{Doctrine_Record}} represents a database table column. As you've learned in the previous chapters the column definitions can be achieved with the hasColumn() method. Now accessing the columns is easy. You can use any of the means described above. The recommended way is using the ArrayAccess as it makes it easy to switch between record and array fetching when needed.
<code type="php">
$user = $table->find(3);
// access property through overloading
$name = $user->name;
// access property with get()
$name = $user->get("name");
// access property with ArrayAccess interface
$name = $user['name'];
</code>
Iterating trhough the properties of a record can be done in similar way as iterating through an array - by using the foreach construct. This is possible since {{Doctrine_Record}} implements a magic IteratorAggregate interface.
<code type="php">
foreach ($user as $field => $value) {
}
</code>
As with arrays you can use the isset() for checking if given property exists and unset() for setting given property to null.
<code type="php">
// checking if property called 'name' exists
if (isset($user['name'])) {
}
// unsetting name property
unset($user['name']);
</code>
When you have set values for record properties you can get the names of modified properties with modifiedFields() method. This method returns an array of modified field names.
Sometimes you may want to retrieve the column count of given record. In order to do this you can simply pass the record as an argument for the count() function. This is possible since {{Doctrine_Record}} implements a magic Countable interface. The other way would be calling the count() method.
<code type="php">
// get the number of columns
$colCount = $record->count();
$colCount = count($record);
</code>
{{Doctrine_Record}} offers a special method for accessing the identifier of given record. This method is called identifier() and it returns an array with identifier field names as keys and values as the associated property values.
<code type="php">
$user['name'] = 'Jack Daniels';
$user->save();
$user->identifier(); // array('id' => 1)
</code>
A common case is that you have an array of values which you need to assign to a given record. It may feel awkward and clumsy to set these values separately. No need to worry though, {{Doctrine_Record}} offers a way for merging given array to property values.
The merge() method iterates through the properties of given record and assigns the values of given array to the associated properties.
<code type="php">
$values = array('name' => 'someone',
'age' => 11,
'unknownproperty' => '...');
// notice that here the unknownproperty won't get assigned
// as the User class doesn't have a column with that name
$user->merge($values);
print $user->name; // someone
print $user->age; // 11
print $user->unknownproperty; // throws exception
</code>
+++ Retrieving existing records
Doctrine provides many ways for record retrieval. The fastest ways for retrieving existing records are the finder methods provided by {{Doctrine_Table}}. If you need to use more complex queries take a look at the DQL API.
<code type="php">
$table = $conn->getTable("User");
// find by primary key
$user = $table->find(2);
if($user !== false)
print $user->name;
// get all users
foreach($table->findAll() as $user) {
print $user->name;
}
// finding by dql
foreach($table->findByDql("name LIKE '%John%'") as $user) {
print $user->created;
}
// finding objects with DQL
$users = $conn->query("FROM User u WHERE u.name LIKE '%John%'");
</code>
+++ Updating records
Updating objects is very easy, you just call the {{Doctrine_Record::save()}} method. The other way is to call {{Doctrine_Connection::flush()}} which saves all objects. It should be noted though that flushing is a much heavier operation than just calling save method.
<code type="php">
$table = $conn->getTable('User');
$user = $table->find(2);
if($user !== false) {
$user->name = 'Jack Daniels';
$user->save();
}
</code>
Sometimes you may want to do a direct update. In direct update the objects aren't loaded from database, rather the state of the database is directly updated. In the following example we use DQL UPDATE statement to update all users.
<code type="php">
// make all usernames lowercased
Doctrine_Query::create()->update('User u')
->set('u.name', 'LOWER(u.name)')
->execute();
</code>
+++ Deleting records
Deleting records in Doctrine is handled by {{Doctrine_Record::delete()}}, {{Doctrine_Collection::delete()}} and {{Doctrine_Connection::delete()}} methods.
<code type="php">
$table = $conn->getTable("User");
$user = $table->find(2);
// deletes user and all related composite objects
if($user !== false)
$user->delete();
$users = $table->findAll();
// delete all users and their related composite objects
$users->delete();
</code>
+++ Using expression values
There might be situations where you need to use SQL expressions as values of columns. This can be achieved by using Doctrine_Expression which converts portable DQL expressions to your native SQL expressions.
Lets say we have a class called event with columns timepoint(datetime) and name(string). Saving the record with the current timepoint can be achieved as follows:
<code type="php">
$event = new Event();
$event->name = 'Rock festival';
$event->timepoint = new Doctrine_Expression('NOW()');
{{Every Doctrine_Record}} has a state. First of all records can be transient or persistent. Every record that is retrieved from database is persistent and every newly created record is considered transient. If a {{Doctrine_Record}} is retrieved from database but the only loaded property is its primary key, then this record has a state called proxy.
Every transient and persistent {{Doctrine_Record}} is either clean or dirty. {{Doctrine_Record}} is clean when none of its properties are changed and dirty when atleast one of its properties has changed.
A record can also have a state called locked. In order to avoid infinite recursion in some rare circular reference cases Doctrine uses this state internally to indicate that a record is currently under a manipulation operation.
<code type="php">
$state = $record->state();
switch($state):
case Doctrine_Record::STATE_PROXY:
// record is in proxy state,
// meaning its persistent but not all of its properties are
// loaded from the database
break;
case Doctrine_Record::STATE_TCLEAN:
// record is transient clean,
// meaning its transient and
// none of its properties are changed
break;
case Doctrine_Record::STATE_TDIRTY:
// record is transient dirty,
// meaning its transient and
// some of its properties are changed
break;
case Doctrine_Record::STATE_DIRTY:
// record is dirty,
// meaning its persistent and
// some of its properties are changed
break;
case Doctrine_Record::STATE_CLEAN:
// record is clean,
// meaning its persistent and
// none of its properties are changed
break;
case Doctrine_Record::STATE_LOCKED:
// record is locked
break;
endswitch;
</code>
+++ Getting object copy
Sometimes you may want to get a copy of your object (a new object with all properties copied). Doctrine provides a simple method for this: {{Doctrine_Record::copy()}}.
Notice that copying the record with copy() returns a new record (state TDIRTY) with the values of the old record, and it copies the relations of that record. If you do not want to copy the relations too, you need to use copy(false).
By default Doctrine doesn't execute when save() is being called on an unmodified record. There might be situations where you want to force-insert the record even if it has not been modified. This can be achieved by assigning the state of the record to Doctrine_Record::STATE_TDIRTY.
<code type="php">
$user = new User();
$user->state('TDIRTY');
$user->save();
$user->id; // 1
</code>
+++ Mapping custom values
There might be situations where you want to map custom values to records. For example values that depend on some outer sources and you only want these values to be availible at runtime not persisting those values into database. This can be achieved as follows:
<code type="php">
$user->mapValue('isRegistered', true);
$user->isRegistered; // true
</code>
+++ Serializing
Sometimes you may want to serialize your record objects (possibly for caching purposes). Records can be serialized, but remember: Doctrine cleans all relations, before doing this. So remember to persist your objects into database before serializing them.
<code type="php">
$string = serialize($user);
$user = unserialize($string);
</code>
+++ Checking existence
Very commonly you'll need to know if given record exists in the database. You can use the exists() method for checking if given record has a database row equivalent.
<code type="php">
$record = new User();
$record->exists(); // false
$record->name = 'someone';
$record->save();
$record->exists(); // true
</code>
+++ Function callbacks for columns
{{Doctrine_Record}} offers a way for attaching callback calls for column values. For example if you want to trim certain column, you can simply type:
<code type="php">
$record->call('trim', 'column1');
</code>
++ Collection
{{Doctrine_Collection}} is a collection of records (see {{Doctrine_Record}}). As with records the collections can be deleted and saved using {{Doctrine_Collection::delete()}} and {{Doctrine_Collection::save()}} accordingly.
When fetching data from database with either DQL API (see {{Doctrine_Query}}) or rawSql API (see {{Doctrine_RawSql}}) the methods return an instance of {{Doctrine_Collection}} by default.
The following example shows how to initialize a new collection:
$users = new Doctrine_Collection($conn->getTable('User'));
// alternative (propably easier)
$users = new Doctrine_Collection('User');
// adding some data
$users[0]->name = 'Arnold';
$users[1]->name = 'Somebody';
// finally save it!
$users->save();
</code>
+++ Accessing elements
You can access the elements of {{Doctrine_Collection}} with {{set()}} and {{get()}} methods or with {{ArrayAccess}} interface.
<code type="php">
$table = $conn->getTable("User");
$users = $table->findAll();
// accessing elements with ArrayAccess interface
$users[0]->name = "Jack Daniels";
$users[1]->name = "John Locke";
// accessing elements with get()
print $users->get(1)->name;
</code>
+++ Adding new elements
When accessing single elements of the collection and those elements (records) don't exist Doctrine auto-adds them.
In the following example we fetch all users from database (there are 5) and then add couple of users in the collection.
As with PHP arrays the indexes start from zero.
<code type="php">
$users = $table->findAll();
print count($users); // 5
$users[5]->name = "new user 1";
$users[6]->name = "new user 2";
</code>
+++ Getting collection count
The {{Doctrine_Collection}} method {{count()}} returns the number of elements currently in the collection.
<code type="php">
$users = $table->findAll();
print $users->count();
</code>
Since {{Doctrine_Collection}} implements Countable interface a valid alternative for the previous example is to simply pass the collection as an argument for the count() function.
Similar to {{Doctrine_Record}} the collection can be saved by calling the {{save()}} method. When save() gets called Doctrine issues save() operations an all records and wraps the whole procedure in a transaction.
<code type="php">
$users = $table->findAll();
$users[0]->name = 'Jack Daniels';
$users[1]->name = 'John Locke';
$users->save();
</code>
+++ Deleting collection
Doctrine Collections can be deleted in very same way is Doctrine Records you just call {{delete()}} method. As for all collections Doctrine knows how to perform single-shot-delete meaning it only performs one database query for the each collection.
For example if we have collection of users. When deleting the collection
of users doctrine only performs one query for this whole transaction. The query would look something like:
<code type="sql">
DELETE FROM user WHERE id IN (1,2,3, ... ,N)
</code>
+++ Key mapping
Sometimes you may not want to use normal indexing for collection elements. For example in some cases mapping primary keys as collection keys might be useful. The following example demonstrates how this can be achieved.
Doctrine provides means for efficiently retrieving all related records for all record elements. That means when you have for example a collection of users you can load all phonenumbers for all users by simple calling the {{loadRelated()}} method.
However, in most cases you don't need to load related elements explicitly, rather what you should do is try to load everything at once by using the DQL API and JOINS.
The following example uses three queries for retrieving users, their phonenumbers and the groups they belong to.
<code type="php">
$users = $conn->query('FROM User');
// now lets load phonenumbers for all users
$users->loadRelated('Phonenumber');
foreach($users as $user) {
print $user->Phonenumber[0]->phonenumber;
// no additional db queries needed here
}
// the loadRelated works an any relation, even associations:
Creating new record (database row) is very easy. You can either use the {{Doctrine_Connection::create()}} or {{Doctrine_Table::create()}} method to do this or just simply use the new operator.
<code type="php">
$user = new User();
$user->name = 'Jack';
$group = $conn->create('Group');
$group->name = 'Drinking Club';
// saves all the changed objects into database
$conn->flush();
</code>
+++ Querying the database
{{Doctrine_Connection::query()}} is a simple method for efficient object retrieval. It takes one parameter (DQL query) and optionally prepared statement params.
<code type="php">
// select all users
$users = $conn->query('FROM User');
// select all users where user email is jackdaniels@drinkmore.info
$users = $conn->query("FROM User WHERE User.Email.address = 'jackdaniels@drinkmore.info'");
// using prepared statements
$users = $conn->query('FROM User WHERE User.name = ?', array('Jack'));
</code>
++ Table
{{Doctrine_Table}} holds the schema information specified by the given component (record). For example if you have a User class that extends Doctrine_Record, each schema definition call gets delegated to a unique table object that holds the information for later use.
Each {{Doctrine_Table}} is registered by {{Doctrine_Connection}}, which means you can retrieve the tables from the connection by calling the getTable() method with the appropriate component name.
For example, lets say we want to retrieve the table object for the User class. We can do this by simply giving the 'User' as the first argument for the getTable() method.
<code>
// get the current connection
$conn = Doctrine_Manager::connection();
$table = $conn->getTable('User');
</code>
+++ Getting column information
You can retrieve the column definitions set in {{Doctrine_Record}} by using the appropriate {{Doctrine_Table}} methods. If you need all information of all columns you can simply use:
<code type="php">
// getting all information of all columns
$columns = $table->getColumns();
</code>
Sometimes this can be an overkill. The following example shows how to retrieve the column names as an array:
<code>
// getting column names
$names = $table->getColumnNames();
</code>
+++ Getting relation information
+++ Finder methods
{{Doctrine_Table}} provides basic finder methods. These finder methods are very fast and should be used if you only need to fetch data from one database table. If you need queries that use several components (database tables) use {{Doctrine_Connection::query()}}.
<code type="php">
$table = $conn->getTable("User");
// find by primary key
$user = $table->find(2);
if($user !== false)
print $user->name;
// get all users
foreach($table->findAll() as $user) {
print $user->name;
}
// finding by dql
foreach($table->findByDql("name LIKE '%John%'") as $user) {
print $user->created;
}
</code>
++++ Custom table classes
Adding custom table classes is very easy. Only thing you need to do is name the classes as {{[componentName]Table}} and make them inherit {{Doctrine_Table}}.
<code type="php">
// valid table object
class UserTable extends Doctrine_Table
{
}
// not valid [doesn't extend Doctrine_Table]
class GroupTable { }
</code>
+++ Custom finders
You can add custom finder methods to your custom table object. These finder methods may use fast {{Doctrine_Table}} finder methods or DQL API ({{Doctrine_Connection::query()}}).
<code type="php">
class UserTable extends Doctrine_Table {
/**
* you can add your own finder methods here
*/
public function findByName($name) {
return $this->getConnection()->query("FROM User WHERE name LIKE '%$name%'");
