What do you think, should I use ORM like Propel or Doctrine?
For a new PHP Project. Are there any performance issues?
When you start a new project you can get Objects in and out of the database fast, without worrying how you do it.
You can also switch DBMS very fast from SQLite on your local dev machine, to MySQL on your testing or staging servers.
When the performance part kicks in, your application has already matured a bit, models are somewhat fixed and programlogic is running. Extending the models to use SQL instead of the ORM is more convenient then, because the structure of the project isn't changing (so fast) anymore.
I suggest doctrine.
Related
Maintaining database views in mysql is sometimes cumbersome. When you change a referred table you have to alter the table and there is no clean way to do that in migrations (DB::unprepared()). I guess using query scopes in models is more maintainable. Isn't it? Does it has negative effect on the performance.
I don't know how big your project is and I don't have many elements to judge this situation perfectly.
However, working with views means depending on the underlying database system. Obviously it has its pros and cons, but I would prefer to decouple my software components.
What if you change, in the future, switching from MySQL to MongoDB?
Maybe, you could use a cache system, like Redis or Memcached (and Laravel already has a ready-to-use service for it).
As I told you before, I am making this suggestion basically because I think about the software scalability and components decoupling.
Here you can learn about the basic use of the Cache Service: http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/cache
Also, if you have some confidence with design patterns, you can implement a really elegant solution using some stacked repositories alongside the decorator pattern.
You can find some interesting articles about the topic here:
http://culttt.com/2014/02/03/laravel-4-cache-service/
http://culttt.com/2014/04/23/decorator-pattern/
Yes, they're about Laravel 4 but the concept can be easily adopted in a Laravel 5.* project.
Hope it was useful!
EDIT: as I told in the following comments, if you don't want to start with something like Redis or Memcached, you can always use the filesystem-based Cache.
I have a really nasty problem with a CodeIgniter application which I want to load balance using also MySQL replication.
In other PHP frameworks this would be a 5minute job because you may switch the datasource just before saving the data (CakePHP allows this, for example), but it seems in CodeIgniter that's a different story.
My problem is the application is legacy and I have to load balance it so I have all the hardware setup already done, the filesystem is in sync, the database has a slave and updates it as it should, but I have to make the second CodeIgniter application to read from the slave and write to the master.
I already found a solution but since the application is legacy I wouldn't want to go into its internals because I could destroy something that already works (it's also pretty sensible because people are paying within the app and it's also live which makes things even worse).
The solution I've found is this one which makes you change all the models in the application.
As further information CodeIgniter database driver (CI_DB_mysql_driver in this case) doesn't have any method for switching the connection or something.
Do you have another suggestion for tackling this problem? (besides changing all the models which I find a bit too intrusive)
I am starting a new (and first) project with Symfony2, but I didn't choise Database engine yet. And it could be MySQL or NoSQL engines like MongoDB or others, or also it could be changed along the proyect cycle.
So, I would like to start working without limitation of choising Doctrine, Doctrine for Mongo or others. And allowing posibility of changing only model layer without big impact on controllers, and classes.
Recomendations? Comments? Best Practices?
Hope this tutorial will help you to get some knowledge. However try to learn the main concepts before doing any major development.
I need to load data from an old DB into a migrated schema of this DB using Doctrine migration system.
I guess Doctrine might help me in this process.
I tried and lost a few hours using ETL scripts programs, without success.
From my point of view I need to :
Create a DB with the V0 schema
Load the data from the old DB (schema are identical)
Migrate DB to latest version using Doctrine migration
Extract data
Load it in the new DB
WHat do you think of this process?
Do you think it is feasable using Doctrine?
I tried a few searches on Google without success.
I am currently reviewed the features of Doctrine_Core class.
Thanks for your help
Yes, it is possible to migrate data from one database to another using Doctrine.
It sounds like you're trying to do a one-time database revision and migration and that your applications are not currently written using Doctrine. In that scenario, database abstraction has little or no benefit, unless you're also rewriting the applications to use it.
If you have no prior experience using Doctrine then I seriously doubt that writing custom migration classes in it will be easier than doing it with whatever database API you are already experienced using. It makes sense to use the migration classes (some times) if you are already using Doctrine for your development. Otherwise it's another layer and API you don't need.
I'm using Doctrine 1.2, which has some nice features for migrations but also a number of bugs and omissions of expected functionality. Reportedly version 2 improves on this but I haven't used it yet.
(Make this CW if needed)
We are two developers working on a web application based (PHP5, ZF, Doctrine, MySQL5). We are working each with a local webserver and a local database. The database schema is defined in a YAML file.
What's the best way to keep our database schemas in sync?
Here's how we do it: Whenever developer "A" makes a change, he generates a migration class. Then he commits the migration file developer "B" executes the migration class.
But creating a migration class on every db change is a rather tedious process.
Do you have a better solution?
I don't know how you do in the Zend Framework with Doctrine. Here's how I would do it in Symfony with Propel. Though the exact procedure may vary, but the underlying concept is the same.
I have unit tests on my DAL.
Whenever the schema changes, we check in the yml and the generated ORM code ( You do have a source control, don't you). I set the check-in to auto-mode, meaning I will get all the check-in instantly.
If the schema changes don't affect my thing, then I would just ignore the changes. But if the schema changes break my thing, then I will rebuild my form, ORM classes and whatnot by using symfony propel build command. Rebuilding those infrastructures is just a single command line thing, so there is no problem for me.
Finally, after rebuilding, I will run my unit tests, to make sure everything is OK. If not, I better get them fixed!
I see that this question is already answered but Doctrine can migrate your databases for you without having to blow away the whole thing. We use this for every schema change where one developer changes his/her local yaml file, generates new models locally, creates a migration using Doctrine, runs that migration locally to change the db, then checks in both the new yaml file and the migration. Then other developers check out the changed yaml file and migration, then they generate new models and run the migration to sync their db. Deploying the code to our QA and production environments is pretty much the same process.
More information on Doctrine migrations can be found on the Doctrine site.