Can Doctrine2 map an object property to the entities' table? - php

Question

i'm using Doctrine2 for a project with accounting for the user.
So the user object has a collection of account objects.
These account objects have an accounting period with Datetimes for the start and end of the period.
/** #Entity */
class Account
{
/** #Column(type="datetime") */
private periodStart;
/** #Column(type="datetime") */
private periodEnd;
}
Since I have to add some methods to the account class, that should handle the period, I think it would be good practice to refactor the period properties and put them in their own class with the new methods. something like:
/** #Entity */
class Account
{
/** ??? */
private accountPeriod;
}
/** #Entity */
class AccountPeriod
{
/** #Column(type="datetime") */
private periodStart;
/** #Column(type="datetime") */
private periodEnd;
public function doSomething(){...}
}
But then Doctrine2 would create a new table for AccountPeriod.
What I want is to keep the periodStart and periodEnd columns in the Account table. I searched for it but couldn't find anything - also I looked at custom types but as I understand they only map simple types but not aggregates.
I also want to use these columns in queries so the doctrine column type 'object' is no option.
Have somebody done this before, maybe with some trick?
Or is it just impossible with Doctrine2?

Answer 1

The answer for the above case is Embeddables:
Embeddables are classes which are not entities themselves, but are embedded in entities and can also be queried in DQL. You'll mostly want to use them to reduce duplication or separating concerns. Value objects such as date range or address are the primary use case for this feature.
The solution would be something like:
/** #Entity */
class Account
{
/** #Embedded(class = "AccountPeriod") */
private $accountPeriod;
}
/** #Embeddable */
class AccountPeriod
{
/** #Column(type="datetime") */
private periodStart;
/** #Column(type="datetime") */
private periodEnd;
public function doSomething(){...}
}