Symfony2 structural composite pattern with entities - php

Question

I am trying to implement a simple menu composite pattern.
These are the following classes i came up with.
MenuItem:
namespace MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Entity;
use MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Menu\MenuComponent;
class MenuItem implements MenuComponent
{
private $id;
private $name;
private $path;
private $parent;
private $visible;
private $createdOn;
private $templating;
private $attr;
private $children;
private $website;
private $position = 1;
public function __construct($name = null, $path = null, $attr = array(), $visible = true)
{
$this->name = $name;
$this->path = $path;
$this->visible = $visible;
$this->attr = $attr;
$this->createdOn = new \DateTime;
}
public function prePersist()
{
$this->createdOn = new \DateTime;
}
public function build()
{
$data['menu_item'] = $this;
$data['options'] = $this->attr;
if($this->hasChildren())
return $this->templating->render('MYBUNDLE:Menu:menu_dropdown.html.twig', $data);
if($this->isChild())
return $this->parent->getTemplating()->render('MYBUNDLE:Menu:menu_item.html.twig', $data);
return $this->templating->render('MYBUNDLE:Menu:menu_item.html.twig', $data);
}
public function __toString()
{
return $this->name;
}
public function setTemplating($templating)
{
$this->templating = $templating;
}
/**
* #return bool
*/
public function isChild()
{
return $this->hasParent();
}
/**
* #return bool
*/
public function hasParent()
{
return isset($this->parent);
}
/**
* #return bool
*/
public function hasChildren()
{
return count($this->children) > 0;
}
}
If left out the getters and setters to make it a bit shorter here.
As you can see this is the entity and it contains a build() function, however this function uses the render method which in my opinion shouldn't be in an entity.
MenuController
<?php
namespace MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Controller;
use MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Menu\Menu;
use MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Entity\MenuItem;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
class MenuController extends Controller
{
public function generateAction()
{
$menu = new Menu($this->get('templating'));
// load menu items
$items = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository('MYBUNDLE:MenuItem')->findOrdered();
foreach($items as $item)
{
if(!$item->hasParent())
$menu->add($item);
}
return new Response($menu->build());
}
}
The MenuController gets called to render the menu:
{{ render(controller('MYBUNDLE:Menu:generate')) }}
I would also like this to be different since it doesn't look right. Perhaps it's better to create a twig function to render the menu?
MenuComponent:
namespace MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Menu;
interface MenuComponent {
public function build();
}
Menu:
namespace MYNAME\MYBUNDLE\Menu;
class Menu implements MenuComponent
{
private $children;
private $templating;
public function __construct($templating)
{
$this->templating = $templating;
}
public function add(MenuComponent $component)
{
$component->setTemplating($this->templating);
$this->children[] = $component;
}
public function build()
{
return $this->templating->render('MYBUNDLE:Menu:menu.html.twig', array("menu_items" => $this->children));
}
}
Menu Contains the MenuComponents and will render the menu first, in each MenuItem it's build() method is called.
I think it's better to remove the rendering logic from my MenuItem entity and place this somewhere else, however i can't figure out on how to do this properly within this design pattern.
Any help or suggestion is appreciated.