Question

Let’ imagine we have several tables: table_item, table_category, table_items_status.
Which is updated by service in single mode (no relations) using their own entity.

Can i, and how, create one entity that will have only relatioship of this tables, for example something like that….

** 
* @ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="table_item")
* @ORM\JoinColumn(name="itemID", referencedColumnName="itemID")
**
private $tableItemIDByItemID
// ... getter\setter

**
* @ORM\Column(type="integer")
**
private $itemID;
// ... getter\setter

In php code i want simply call

$entity->setItemID(123);
$result = $entity->getTableItemIDByItemID();

And will get ArrayCollection() from table_item by itemID.

Main thing that I want create extra entity only with relationships for several tables and only unidirectional. I need this for creating entity without touching another for relationships.

Answer 1

You should look into entity repositories. These provide some basic functionality queries but you can extend them with your own custom queries (eg: getItemIDByItemID). It’s called the repository pattern. An entity is just a object representation of your database.

Symfony2 manual:

“It’s a good idea to create a custom repository class for your entity and add methods with your query logic there.”

Some more information about repositories:

http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/doctrine.html#custom-repository-classes
http://www.zalas.eu/doctrine2-and-symfony2