Doctrine entity manager using wrong connection - php

Question

According to the Symfony docs, multiple entity managers can be configured by listing them in config/packages/doctrine.yaml then selecting a specific entity manager in a controller like this: $this->getDoctrine()->getManager('customer');.
I set up my config/packages/doctrine.yaml:
doctrine:
dbal:
default_connection: default
connections:
default:
# configure these for your database server
url: '%env(DATABASE_URL)%'
driver: 'pdo_mysql'
server_version: '8.0'
charset: utf8mb4
meter:
# configure these for your database server
url: '%env(DATABASE_METER_URL)%'
driver: 'pdo_mysql'
server_version: '8.0'
charset: utf8mb4
orm:
default_entity_manager: default
entity_managers:
default:
connection: default
naming_strategy: doctrine.orm.naming_strategy.underscore
mappings:
App:
is_bundle: false
type: annotation
dir: '%kernel.project_dir%/src/Entity'
prefix: 'App\Entity'
alias: App
meter:
connection: meter
naming_strategy: doctrine.orm.naming_strategy.underscore
mappings:
App:
is_bundle: false
type: annotation
dir: '%kernel.project_dir%/src/Entity'
prefix: 'App\Entity'
alias: App
and then tried to make a query with
$meterEntityManager = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager('meter');
$meter = $meterEntityManager->getRepository(Entity\Meter::class)->find($meterId);
However, the result of $meterEntityManager->getRepository(Entity\Meter::class)->find($meterId) is a row from the database connection named default, not the one named meter -- it is as if the code had been
$entityManager = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager('default');
$meter = $entityManager->getRepository(Entity\Meter::class)->find($meterId);
When I check the connection with $meterEntityManager->getConnection()->getParams() it correctly lists the params for the meter connection rather than the default connection, so I can get a row from the meter database connection by executing queries directly on the connection object:
$meterEntityManager = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager('meter');
$stmt = $meterEntityManager->getConnection()->prepare('SELECT * FROM meter WHERE id = :id');
$stmt->execute(['id' => $meterId]);
$meter = $stmt->fetch();
But ultimately I want to fetch rows through the methods offered by getRepository(Entity\Meter::class) so returned data is automatically hydrated into doctrine entities. There seems to be an inconsistency between the connection used by $meterEntityManager->getRepository(Entity\Meter::class) and $meterEntityManager->getConnection(). Why is this? Does it have something to do with the entity managers using different connections but sharing the same mappings to entities?

Answer 1

The basic issue here is that ServiceEntityRepository class iterates through a list of entity managers and uses the first one that supports a given entity. Which is fine except when you happen to have entities supported by multiple entity managers. The solution is to go "old school" and extend from the EntityRepository class instead of what is basically a container aware ServiceEntityRepository.
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
class MeterRepository extends EntityRepository
{
// Note: Do not override the constructor here
You also have to add the App\Repository directory to the list of excluded directories in services.yaml.
The reason for the ServiceEntityRepository was to allow the Symfony container to autowire repositories and inject them directly into other services. It also allows the developer to inject additional dependencies into the repository if they so chose.