Custom QueryBuilder in Doctrine - php

Question

I have this problem, I would like to create "smart" criteria. Suppose there's a model of 1 Author : n Books.
So, instead of:
$qb = $em->getRepository('Books')->createQueryBuilder('b')
->join('b.author', 'a')
->where('a.dod is null')
->where('a.name = :name')
->setParameter('name', 'Mozart');
;
...i'd like to do something like:
$qb = $em->getRepository('Books')->createQueryBuilder('b')
->whereAuthorIsAlive()
->whereAuthorName('Mozart');
I am aware of the possibility to creating custom EntityManager but this is not quite it. Custom QueryBuider would be more suitable.

Answer 1

You could extend the QueryBuilder with your custom methods, but have a little overhead by overwriting the createQueryBuilder method of your repository:
Extend the default QueryBuilder class:
class BookQueryBuilder extends \Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder
{
public function whereAuthorIsAlive(): self
{
return $this->join($this->getRootAlias() . '.author', '_a')
->andWhere('_a.alive = true');
}
}
In your Repository, overwrite the createQueryBuilder method:
class BookRepository extends EntityRepository
{
public function createQueryBuilder($alias, $indexBy = null)
{
return (new BookQueryBuilder($this->_em))
->select($alias)
->from($this->_entityName, $alias, $indexBy);
}
}
Use the new method
$qb = $em->getRepository('Books')->createQueryBuilder('b')
->whereAuthorIsAlive();

Answer 2

I used such kind of the same in a repository.
I created methods in the repository class that added QueryBuilder parts to a query.
In example, based on yours :
namespace App\Repository;
class BooksRepository extends EntityRepository
{
private function whereAuthorIsAlive($qb)
{
$qb->where('a.dod is null');
return $qb;
}
private function whereAuthorName($qb, $name)
{
$qb->where('a.name = :name')
->setParameter('name', $name);
return $qb;
}
public function getBooksByAliveAuthorName($name)
{
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('b')
->join('b.author', 'a')
$qb = $this->whereAuthorIsAlive($qb);
$qb = $this->whereAuthorName($qb, $name);
return $qb->getQuery()->getResult();
}
}
To register this repository with your entity :
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\BooksRepository")
*/
class Books
{
// your entity
}
And then, in a controller :
$books = $this->getDoctrine()
->getRepository('App:Books')
->getBooksByAliveAuthorName('Mozart');