Utility functions that a Symfony entity should have - php

Question

I don't know maybe it is me or may be it is symfony that is lame, please why is symfony entity class not having utility functions like these:
//Assume product is an entity class
$product = Product::findById($id);
$productExample = new Product(array("price"=>20, "vendor"=>'friends'));
$products = Product::findByExample($productExample);
$Dql = "SELECT * FROM product p WHERE p.id IN (SELECT si.pid FROM solditem si WHERE si.sold_date BETWEEN 1-1-2017 AND 2-2-2017 ORDER BY si.price)";
$products = Product::findByDql($Dql) or Product::findBySql($sql);
$product = new Product(array('id' => $id)); // I should be able to get the entity with that Id
In other frameworks like Zend (even small and simple ones like cakePHP, codeIgniter) it is very easy to implement functions like these and they will be callable everywhere, you will not have to be running after one entityManagers or entityCEOs.
Is there an easy way to implement way to implement these in symfony, if there is please let me know, if not please give me why.
Thanks

Answer 1

In general I suggest you read a little bit more about the documentations of the frameworks you are comparing.
I don't know maybe it is me or may be it is symfony that is lame, please why is symfony entity class not having utility functions like these
To be honest in this case it is you ;-) ... no offense, but the systems are implementing different storage layers. Other frameworks like CodeIgniter, CakePHP and Laravel are implementing the Active Record Pattern. The latter e.g. by providing the Eloquent ORM
The Eloquent ORM included with Laravel provides a beautiful, simple ActiveRecord implementation for working with your database. Each database table has a corresponding "Model" which is used to interact with that table.
Symfony on the other hand is using Doctrine 2 ORM as storage layer:
As the term ORM already hints at, Doctrine 2 aims to simplify the translation between database rows and the PHP object model. The primary use case for Doctrine are therefore applications that utilize the Object-Oriented Programming Paradigm. For applications that do not primarily work with objects Doctrine 2 is not suited very well.
You can make up your own mind which one you favour, but it is not an easy task to swap the storage layer in these frameworks. If you search for it I think you will find some discussions around this topic.
In Symfony Entity Repositories are usually the place where you define your desired functionality:
When you query for a particular type of object, you always use what's
known as its "repository". You can think of a repository as a PHP
class whose only job is to help you fetch entities of a certain class.
Create a custom repository class following the official documentation or take it a step further and set up your own repository class without using Doctrines EntityRepository as described in this highly recommended article.
There is no one preventing you from adding static functions to it, but the recommended way is to make a service out of your repository, e.g.
Repository
// src/AppBundle/Product/DoctrineBasedProductRepository.php
namespace AppBundle\Product;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager;
class DoctrineBasedProductRepository implements ProductRepository
{
private $entityManager;
public function __construct(EntityManager $entityManager)
{
$this->entityManager = $entityManager;
}
public function all()
{
// Create a basic DQL query to fetch all entities
return $this->entityManager->createQuery('SELECT p FROM '.Product::class.' p')
->getResult();
}
...
}
Service definition
# app/config/services.yml
services:
app.product_repository:
class: AppBundle\Product\DoctrineBasedProductRepository
arguments: ['#doctrine.orm.entity_manager']
Now you can use the repository e.g. in your controller:
public function listAction()
{
$products = $this->get'app.product_repository')->all();
// ... do something, like pass the $products object into a template
}