Order (sub-)categories in Doctrine with Symfony2/YML - php

Question

I've finally succeeded to create a working self-referencing relationship in Doctrine/Symfony2. But, when I request a findAll the table rows aren't returned in the order I want. (Maybe it's not THAT easy, but I can't find any solution anymore.)
The table "categories"
id parentId name
1 NULL music
2 NULL films
3 1 bands
4 1 guitars
5 NULL books
6 2 actors
The file "category.orm.yml"
FormBundle\Entity\Category:
type: entity
oneToMany:
children:
fetch: "EAGER"
targetEntity: FormBundle\Entity\Category
mappedBy: parent
cascade: ["all"]
manyToOne:
parent:
targetEntity: FormBundle\Entity\Category
inversedBy: children
joinColumn:
name: parentId
referencedColumnName: id
table: categories
repositoryClass: FormBundle\Entity\CategoryRepository
id:
id:
column: id
type: integer
id: true
generator:
strategy: AUTO
fields:
name:
type: string
length: '100'
lifecycleCallbacks: { }
I tried an orderBy (in any way I could find, on any field) but I haven't succeeded or had ANY progress with it.
The entity file "Category.php"
<?php
namespace FormBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* Category
*/
class Category
{
/**
* #var integer
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var category
*/
private $parent;
/**
* #var arrayCollection
*/
private $children;
/**
* #var string
*/
private $name;
public function __construct()
{
$this->children = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function getChildren() {
return $this->children;
}
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Set parentId
*
* #param integer $parentId
* #return Category
*/
public function setParent(Category $parent)
{
$this->parent = $parent;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get parentId
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getParent()
{
return $this->parent;
}
/**
* Set name
*
* #param string $name
* #return Category
*/
public function setName($name)
{
$this->name = $name;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get name
*
* #return string
*/
public function getName()
{
return $this->name;
}
}
What I want as output
<b>music</b>
bands
guitars
<b>films</b>
actors
<b>books</b>
This will be a list, but let's not worry about that right now! It's about the order!
My question
What do I put in my controller to use the relations and fetch the rows in the order I want? Or even better; what do I put in the controller and the repository?
I don't want to use DQL since that is not how Doctrine is meant to be used. I want to learn Doctrine and this is seems to be a very good thing to learn. Yes, I have read the docs for a few days, but nothing seems to work for me. Maybe I overlooked something.

Answer 1

Your tree depth will likely be > 1, Doctrine extensions with his Tree-NestedSet will be a good pick. If it's not the case, your question becomes trivial :
In your controller :
$parentCategories = $categoryRepository->findBy(array('parent' => null));
return $this->render('path_to_your_view.html.twig', array(
'parentCategories' => $parentCategories
));
In your view :
{% for parentCategory in parentCategories %}
<b>{{ parentCategory.getName() | e }}</b>
{% for childCategory in parentCategory.getChildren() %}
<p>{{ childCategory.getName() | e }}</p>
{% endfor %}
{% endfor %}