Symfony2: several bundles to access name values stored in a database - php

Question

I am new to Symfony2 and I am porting an old Symfony1 app to v2.
In my old app, I defined all of my models in one great big YML file. So the various 'components' were able to reference the same name value pairs (stored in the YML file).
I am now factoring out the functionality into bundles, and I want to completely decouple the bundles. I still need to access the name value pairs, but I want to store it centrally - in a database this time.
I want to keep my code DRY and so want to write the code for accessing the name value pairs only ONCE and some how use that in the separate bundles.
I also, want to provide centralised CRUD facilities for maintaining the name value pairs.
To summarise, my 2 questions are as follows:
How can I provide functionality (implemented once) to access name value pairs stored in a database, and make this functionality available to bundles that require it?
What is the best way to provide CRUD functionality for maintainance of the name value pairs? (is it by creating yet another bundle?)
I am not sure

Answer 1

You can create a Doctrine entity and request the keys you need. In order to code DRY, use a base entity and extend it to each pair type:
Pair entity:
namespace MyBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #MappedSuperclass
*/
class Pair
{
/**
* #Column(type="string", unique=true)
* #var string
*/
protected $name;
/**
* #Column(type="string")
* #var string
*/
protected $value;
// Getters & setters
// ...
}
SportPair entity:
namespace MyBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #Entity(repositoryClass="MyBundle\Entity\PairRepository")
* #Table(name="sport_pairs")
*/
class SportPair extends Pair
{
/**
* #Id
* #GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
* #Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #var int
*/
protected $id;
}
Pair repository:
namespace MyBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
class PairRepository extends EntityRepository
{
private $cache = array();
public function getValue($key)
{
if (!isset($this->cache[$key])) {
$pair = $this->findOneBy(array('name' => $key));
if (null !== $pair) {
$this->cache[$key] = $pair->getValue();
}
}
return $this->cache[$key];
}
}
Use SensioGenerationBundle to generate CRUD to manager Pair entities.
That's how you should proceed:
Create your application bundle (MyAppBundle).
(optional) Create a shared bundle (MySharedBundle)
Reference the bundles into the application kernel.
Create Pair and PairRepository into MyAppBundle.
(optional) Move those classes to MySharedBundle
Create derived pair classes into MyAppBundle.