Question

I have an entity that needs to return an instance of another entity – the stored record or a new one if one has not been stored.

<?php

/**
 * @Entity
 */
class User {
    /**
     * @OneToOne(targetEntity="Basket")
     * @JoinColumn(nullable=true)
     */
    protected $activeBasket;

    public function getActiveBasket() {
        if (!isset($this->activeBasket)) {
            $this->activeBasket = new Basket($this);
            // $em->persist($this->activeBasket);
            // $em->flush();
        }
        return $this->activeBasket;
    }
}

My problem is that I don’t have an EntityManager to use to persist this new Basket (and obviously don’t want one in the Model). I’m not sure as to the best way to do this. I do want to be able to call $user->getActiveBasket() and retrieve a basket, whether it’s previously created or a new one.

It feels like this should be a common problem, or that there’s a better way to structure this (I’m hoping there’s a way to hook one in in an EntityRepository or something). How can I do this?

Answer 1

I wouldn’t return a new Basket() when it is null or not set. The model (entity) should only serve for setting and getting its properties.

The logic when $user->getActiveBasket() returned null should be elsewhere – in controller or in entity’s reporitory object…

So I would move public function getActiveBasket() { ... } into just public function getActiveBasket() { return $this->activeBasket; } and somewhere in the controller I would do:

$if(!$user->getActiveBasket()) {
    $user->setActiveBasket(new Basket($user));
    $this->_em->persist($user);
    $this->_em->flush();
}
// now do something with that activeBasket...