Files storage with doctrine and symfony 3? - php

Question

I need help for create my entities whit doctrine 2 in my symfony3 app :
I would like my users can posts articles which content is:
title
author
either one unique image (upload file)
or one unique movie ($url)
What do you recommend ?
Should I build my article entity like this ?
class Article
{
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="author", type="integer")
*/
private $author;
/**
* #var ?
*
* #ORM\Column(name="image", type="?")
*/
private $image;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="url_movie", type="string")
*/
private $url_movie;
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="media", type="integer")
*/
private $media;
}
(in controller : if $media = 1 => this is an image, else this is a video)
Or use something like Relation One-To-One with a new entity "media" for example ?
What is the best way for my case ?

Answer 1

Yes, it's normal. Sadly, the discriminator column is meant to be used by Doctrine, database side, therefore it's not accessible in your entity. There's two possible way to achieve what you want:
The first, using the children class name:
/**
* Article
*
* #ORM\Table(name="article")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="PM\PlatformBundle\Repository\ArticleRepository")
* #ORM\InheritanceType("SINGLE_TABLE")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorColumn(name="media", type="string")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorMap({"article" = "Article", "movie" = "Movie", "image" = "Image"})
*/
class Article
{
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $title;
//...
/**
* Get article type.
*
* #return string
*/
public function getType()
{
// This will return "movie" or "image"
return strtolower(substr(strrchr(get_class($this), "\\"), 1));
}
}
/**
* Movie
*
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Movie extends Article
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="url", type="text")
*/
private $url;
//getter setter
}
/**
* Image
*
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Image extends Article
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="path", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $path;
//getter setter
}
The second, by declaring manually the type in your class:
/**
* Article
*
* #ORM\Table(name="article")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="PM\PlatformBundle\Repository\ArticleRepository")
* #ORM\InheritanceType("SINGLE_TABLE")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorColumn(name="media", type="string")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorMap({"article" = "Article", "movie" = "Movie", "image" = "Image"})
*/
class Article
{
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $title;
/**
* #var string
*/
protected $type;
//...
/**
* Get article type.
*
* #return string
*/
public function getType()
{
return $this->type;
}
}
/**
* Movie
*
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Movie extends Article
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="url", type="text")
*/
private $url;
public function __construct()
{
$this->type = 'movie';
}
//getter setter
}
/**
* Image
*
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Image extends Article
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="path", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $path;
public function __construct()
{
$this->type = 'image';
}
//getter setter
}
Personnaly, I have a preference for the first solution. I find it cleaner, and more evolutive (this code will adapt if you have to add a third article type).
Of course, you can also use instanceof to determine which subclass is the Article entity you're manipulating.

Answer 2

I think using a Media entity and handling the media type in the Media entity is the best way.
class Article
{
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
// ...
/**
* #var Media
*
* #OneToOne(targetEntity="Media")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="media_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $media;
}
class Media
{
const TYPE_IMAGE = 'image';
const TYPE_MOVIE = 'movie';
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(type="string")
*/
private $url;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(type="string")
*/
private $type;
}
An other way to do it could be to use entity inheritance to have differents entities for images and movies - if you need to.

Answer 3

Ok I did a Single Table Inheritance on my article class :
/**
* Article
*
* #ORM\Table(name="article")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="PM\PlatformBundle\Repository\ArticleRepository")
* #ORM\InheritanceType("SINGLE_TABLE")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorColumn(name="media", type="string")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorMap({"article" = "Article", "movie" = "Movie", "image" = "Image"})
*/
class Article
{
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $title;
//...
}
/**
* Movie
*
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Movie extends Article
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="url", type="text")
*/
private $url;
//getter setter
}
/**
* Image
*
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Image extends Article
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="path", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $path;
//getter setter
}
That works great !