Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM's documentation!
==========================================

The Doctrine documentation is comprised of tutorials, a reference section and
cookbook articles that explain different parts of the Object Relational mapper.

Doctrine DBAL and Doctrine Common both have their own documentation.

Getting Help
------------

If this documentation is not helping to answer questions you have about
Doctrine ORM don't panic. You can get help from different sources:

-  There is a :doc:`FAQ <reference/faq>` with answers to frequent questions.
-  The `Doctrine Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/doctrine-user>`_
-  Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in `#doctrine on Freenode <irc://irc.freenode.net/doctrine>`_
-  Report a bug on `JIRA <http://www.doctrine-project.org/jira>`_.
-  On `Twitter <https://twitter.com/search/%23doctrine2>`_ with ``#doctrine2``
-  On `StackOverflow <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/doctrine2>`_

If you need more structure over the different topics you can browse the :doc:`table
of contents <toc>`.

Getting Started
---------------

* **Tutorial**: 
  :doc:`Getting Started <tutorials/getting-started-xml-edition>`

* **Reference**:
  :doc:`Introduction <reference/introduction>` |
  :doc:`Architecture <reference/architecture>` |
  :doc:`Configuration <reference/configuration>` |
  :doc:`Tools <reference/tools>` |
  :doc:`Limitations and knowns issues <reference/limitations-and-known-issues>`

Mapping Objects onto a Database
-------------------------------

* **Basic Reference**:
  :doc:`Mapping Objects and Fields <reference/basic-mapping>` |
  :doc:`Mapping Associations <reference/association-mapping>` |
  :doc:`Inheritance Mapping <reference/inheritance-mapping>`

* **Mapping Driver References**:
  :doc:`XML <reference/xml-mapping>` |
  :doc:`YAML <reference/yaml-mapping>` |
  :doc:`Docblock Annotations <reference/annotations-reference>` |
  :doc:`PHP Mapping <reference/php-mapping>` |
  :doc:`Metadata Drivers <reference/metadata-drivers>`

Working with Objects
--------------------

* **Basic Reference**:
  :doc:`Working with Objects <reference/working-with-objects>` |
  :doc:`Working with Assocations <reference/working-with-associations>` |
  :doc:`Events <reference/events>`

* **Querying Objects**:
  :doc:`DQL - Doctrine Query Language <reference/dql-doctrine-query-language>` |
  :doc:`QueryBuilder <reference/query-builder>` |
  :doc:`Native SQL Queries <reference/native-sql>`

* **Tutorials**:
  :doc:`Working with indexed associations <tutorials/working-with-indexed-associations>` |
  :doc:`Extra Lazy Assocations <tutorials/extra-lazy-associations>` |
  :doc:`Composite Primary Keys <tutorials/composite-primary-keys>` 

Advanced Topics
---------------

* **Database Integration**:
  :doc:`Transactions and Concurrency <reference/transactions-and-concurrency>`

* **Performance**:
  :doc:`Improving Performance <reference/improving-performance>` |
  :doc:`Caching <reference/caching>` |
  :doc:`Partial Objects <reference/partial-objects>` |
  :doc:`Change Tracking Policies <reference/change-tracking-policies>`

* **Best Practices**:
  :doc:`Best Practices <reference/best-practices>`

Cookbook
--------

* **Patterns**:
  :doc:`Aggregate Fields <cookbook/aggregate-fields>` |
  :doc:`Decorator Pattern <cookbook/decorator-pattern>` |
  :doc:`Strategy Pattern <cookbook/strategy-cookbook-introduction>` |

* **DQL Extension Points**:
  :doc:`DQL Custom Walkers <cookbook/dql-custom-walkers>` |
  :doc:`DQL User-Defined-Functions <cookbook/dql-user-defined-functions>`

* **Implementation**:
  :doc:`Array Access <cookbook/implementing-arrayaccess-for-domain-objects>` |
  :doc:`Notify ChangeTracking Example <cookbook/implementing-the-notify-changetracking-policy>` |
  :doc:`Using Wakeup Or Clone <cookbook/implementing-wakeup-or-clone>` |
  :doc:`Working with DateTime <cookbook/working-with-datetime>` |
  :doc:`Validation <cookbook/validation-of-entities>` |
  :doc:`Entities in the Session <cookbook/entities-in-session>`

* **Integration into Frameworks/Libraries**
  :doc:`CodeIgniter <cookbook/integrating-with-codeigniter>`

* **Hidden Gems**
  :doc:`Prefixing Table Name <cookbook/sql-table-prefixes>`

* **Custom Datatypes**
  :doc:`MySQL Enums <cookbook/mysql-enums>`
  :doc:`Advanced Field Value Conversion <cookbook/advanced-field-value-conversion-using-custom-mapping-types>`