Configuration

Getting a Connection

You can get a DBAL Connection through the Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager class.

1 <?php
use Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager;

//..
$connectionParams = [
    'dbname' => 'mydb',
    'user' => 'user',
    'password' => 'secret',
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'driver' => 'pdo_mysql',
];
$conn = DriverManager::getConnection($connectionParams);
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Alternatively, if you store your connection settings as a connection URL (DSN), you can parse the URL to extract connection parameters for DriverManager:

1 <?php
use Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\DsnParser;

//..
$dsnParser = new DsnParser();
$connectionParams = $dsnParser
    ->parse('mysqli://user:secret@localhost/mydb');

$conn = DriverManager::getConnection($connectionParams);
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The DriverManager returns an instance of Doctrine\DBAL\Connection which is a wrapper around the underlying driver connection (which is often a PDO instance).

The following sections describe the available connection parameters in detail.

The easiest way to specify commonly used connection parameters is using a database URL or DSN. The scheme is used to specify a driver, the user and password in the URL encode user and password for the connection, followed by the host and port parts (the "authority"). The path after the authority part represents the name of the database, sans the leading slash. Any query parameters are used as additional connection parameters.

The scheme names representing the drivers are the driver names with any underscores in their name replaced with a hyphen (to make them legal in URL scheme names).

For example, to connect to a "foo" MySQL database using the pdo_mysql driver on localhost port 4486 with the "charset" option set to utf8mb4, you would use the following URL:

pdo-mysql://localhost:4486/foo?charset=utf8mb4

In the example above, mind the dashes instead of the underscores in the URL scheme.

For connecting to an SQLite database, the authority portion of the URL is obviously irrelevant and thus can be omitted. The path part of the URL is, like for all other drivers, stripped of its leading slash, resulting in a relative file name for the database:

pdo-sqlite:///somedb.sqlite

This would access somedb.sqlite in the current working directory and is identical to the following:

pdo-sqlite://ignored:ignored@ignored:1234/somedb.sqlite

To specify an absolute file path, e.g. /usr/local/var/db.sqlite, simply use that as the database name, which results in two leading slashes for the path part of the URL, and four slashes in total after the URL scheme name and its following colon:

pdo-sqlite:////usr/local/var/db.sqlite

Which is, again, identical to supplying ignored user/pass/authority:

pdo-sqlite://notused:inthis@case//usr/local/var/db.sqlite

To connect to an in-memory SQLite instance, use :memory: as the database name:

pdo-sqlite:///:memory:

Using the DSN parser

By default, the URL scheme of the parsed DSN has to match one of DBAL's driver names. However, it might be that you have to deal with connection strings where you don't have control over the used scheme, e.g. in a PaaS environment. In order to make the parser understand which driver to use e.g. for mysql:// DSNs, you can configure the parser with a mapping table:

1 <?php
use Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\DsnParser;

//..
$dsnParser = new DsnParser(['mysql' => 'mysqli', 'postgres' => 'pdo_pgsql']);
$connectionParams = $dsnParser
    ->parse('mysql://user:secret@localhost/mydb');
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The DSN parser returns the connection params back to you so you can add or modify individual parameters before passing the params to the DriverManager. For example, you can add a database name if its missing in the DSN or hardcode one if the DSN is not allowed to configure the database name.

1 <?php
use Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\DsnParser;

//..
$connectionParams = $dsnParser->parse($myDsn);
$connectionParams['dbname'] ??= 'default_db';

$conn = DriverManager::getConnection($connectionParams);
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You can also use the mapping table to map a DSN's scheme to a custom driver class:

1 <?php
use Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\DsnParser;
use App\DBAL\CustomDriver; // implements Doctrine\DBAL\Driver

//..
$dsnParser = new DsnParser(['custom' => CustomDriver::class]);
$connectionParams = $dsnParser
    ->parse('custom://user:secret@localhost/mydb');
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Driver

The driver specifies the actual implementations of the DBAL interfaces to use. It can be configured in one of two ways:

driver: The built-in driver implementation to use. The following drivers are currently available:
- pdo_mysql: A MySQL driver that uses the pdo_mysql PDO extension.
- mysqli: A MySQL driver that uses the mysqli extension.
- pdo_sqlite: An SQLite driver that uses the pdo_sqlite PDO extension.
- sqlite3: An SQLite driver that uses the sqlite3 extension.
- pdo_pgsql: A PostgreSQL driver that uses the pdo_pgsql PDO extension.
- pgsql: A PostgreSQL driver that uses the pgsql extension.
- pdo_oci: An Oracle driver that uses the pdo_oci PDO extension. Note that this driver caused problems in our tests. Prefer the oci8 driver if possible.
- pdo_sqlsrv: A Microsoft SQL Server driver that uses pdo_sqlsrv PDO
- sqlsrv: A Microsoft SQL Server driver that uses the sqlsrv PHP extension.
- oci8: An Oracle driver that uses the oci8 PHP extension.
- ibm_db2: An IBM DB2 driver that uses the ibm_db2 PHP extension.
driverClass: Specifies a custom driver implementation if no 'driver' is specified. This allows the use of custom drivers that are not part of the Doctrine DBAL itself.

Wrapper Class

By default a Doctrine\DBAL\Connection is wrapped around a driver Connection. The wrapperClass option allows specifying a custom wrapper implementation to use, however, a custom wrapper class must be a subclass of Doctrine\DBAL\Connection.

Connection Details

The connection details identify the database to connect to as well as the credentials to use. The connection details can differ depending on the used driver. The following sections describe the options recognized by each built-in driver.

pdo_sqlite

user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
path (string): The filesystem path to the database file. Mutually exclusive with memory. path takes precedence.
memory (boolean): True if the SQLite database should be in-memory (non-persistent). Mutually exclusive with path. path takes precedence.

sqlite3

path (string): The filesystem path to the database file. Mutually exclusive with memory.
memory (boolean): True if the SQLite database should be in-memory (non-persistent). Mutually exclusive with path.

pdo_mysql

user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
host (string): Hostname of the database to connect to.
port (integer): Port of the database to connect to.
dbname (string): Name of the database/schema to connect to.
unix_socket (string): Name of the socket used to connect to the database.
charset (string): The charset used when connecting to the database.

mysqli

user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
host (string): Hostname of the database to connect to.
port (integer): Port of the database to connect to.
dbname (string): Name of the database/schema to connect to.
unix_socket (string): Name of the socket used to connect to the database.
charset (string): The charset used when connecting to the database.
ssl_key (string): The path name to the key file to use for SSL encryption.
ssl_cert (string): The path name to the certificate file to use for SSL encryption.
ssl_ca (string): The path name to the certificate authority file to use for SSL encryption.
ssl_capath (string): The pathname to a directory that contains trusted SSL CA certificates in PEM format.
ssl_cipher (string): A list of allowable ciphers to use for SSL encryption.
driverOptions Any supported flags for mysqli found on www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.real-connect.php

pdo_pgsql / pgsql

user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
host (string): Hostname of the database to connect to.
port (integer): Port of the database to connect to.
dbname (string): Name of the database/schema to connect to.
charset (string): The charset used when connecting to the database.
sslmode (string): Determines whether or with what priority a SSL TCP/IP connection will be negotiated with the server. See the list of available modes: www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNECT-SSLMODE
sslrootcert (string): specifies the name of a file containing SSL certificate authority (CA) certificate(s). If the file exists, the server's certificate will be verified to be signed by one of these authorities. See www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNECT-SSLROOTCERT
sslcert (string): specifies the filename of the client SSL certificate. See www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNECT-SSLCERT
sslkey (string): specifies the location for the secret key used for the client certificate. See www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNECT-SSLKEY
sslcrl (string): specifies the filename of the SSL certificate revocation list (CRL). See www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNECT-SSLCRL
gssencmode (string): Optional GSS-encrypted channel/GSSEncMode configuration. See www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNECT-GSSENCMODE
application_name (string): Name of the application that is connecting to database. Optional. It will be displayed at pg_stat_activity.

PostgreSQL behaves differently with regard to booleans when you use PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES or not. To switch from using 'true' and 'false' as strings you can change to integers by using: $conn->getDatabasePlatform()->setUseBooleanTrueFalseStrings($flag).

pdo_oci / oci8

user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
host (string): Hostname of the database to connect to.
port (integer): Port of the database to connect to.
dbname (string): Name of the database/schema to connect to.
servicename (string): Optional name by which clients can connect to the database instance. Will be used as Oracle's SID connection parameter if given and defaults to Doctrine's dbname connection parameter value.
service (boolean): Whether to use Oracle's SERVICE_NAME connection parameter in favour of SID when connecting. The value for this will be read from Doctrine's servicename if given, dbname otherwise.
pooled (boolean): Whether to enable database resident connection pooling.
charset (string): The charset used when connecting to the database.
instancename (string): Optional parameter, complete whether to add the INSTANCE_NAME parameter in the connection. It is generally used to connect to an Oracle RAC server to select the name of a particular instance.
connectstring (string): Complete Easy Connect connection descriptor, see docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/23/netag/configuring-naming-methods.html. When using this option, you will still need to provide the user and password parameters, but the other parameters will no longer be used. Note that when using this parameter, the getHost and getPort methods from Doctrine\DBAL\Connection will no longer function as expected.
persistent (boolean): Whether to establish a persistent connection.
driverOptions (array):
- exclusive (boolean): Once specified for an oci8 connection, forces the driver to always establish a new connection instead of reusing an existing one from the connection pool.
- protocol (string): The protocol used to connect to Oracle (default TCP, Autonomous tends to be TCPS). See docs.oracle.com/en/enterprise-manager/cloud-control/enterprise-manager-cloud-control/13.4/emsec/secured-communication-tcps-access-databases.html.

pdo_sqlsrv / sqlsrv

user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
host (string): Hostname of the database to connect to.
port (integer): Port of the database to connect to.
dbname (string): Name of the database/schema to connect to.
driverOptions (array): Any supported options found on learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/php/connection-options

ibm_db2

dbname (string): Name of the database/schema to connect to or a complete connection string in the format "DATABASE=dbname;HOSTNAME=host;PORT=port;PROTOCOL=TCPIP;UID=user;PWD=password;".
user (string): Username to use when connecting to the database.
password (string): Password to use when connecting to the database.
host (string): Hostname of the database to connect to.
port (integer): Port of the database to connect to.
persistent (boolean): Whether to establish a persistent connection.
driverOptions (array): Any supported options found on www.php.net/manual/en/function.db2-connect.php#refsect1-function.db2-connect-parameters

Automatic platform version detection

Doctrine ships with different database platform implementations for some vendors to support version specific features, dialect and behaviour.

The drivers will automatically detect the platform version and instantiate the corresponding platform class. However, this mechanism might cause the connection to be established prematurely.

You can also pass the serverVersion option if you want to disable automatic database platform detection and choose the platform version implementation explicitly.

Please specify the full server version as the database server would report it. This is especially important for MySQL and MariaDB where the full version string is taken into account when determining the platform.

MySQL

Connect to your MySQL server and run the SELECT VERSION() query:

mysql> SELECT VERSION();
+-----------+
| VERSION() |
+-----------+
| 8.0.32    |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

In the example above, 8.0.32 is the correct value for serverVersion.

MariaDB

Connect to your MariaDB server and run the SELECT VERSION() query:

MariaDB [(none)]> SELECT VERSION();
+-----------------------------------------+
| VERSION()                               |
+-----------------------------------------+
| 10.11.2-MariaDB-1:10.11.2+maria~ubu2204 |
+-----------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

In the example above, 10.11.2-MariaDB-1:10.11.2+maria~ubu2204 is the correct value for serverVersion.

Postgres

Connect to your Postgres server and run the SHOW server_version query:

postgres=# SHOW server_version;
         server_version
--------------------------------
 15.2 (Debian 15.2-1.pgdg110+1)
(1 row)

In the example above, 15.2 (Debian 15.2-1.pgdg110+1) is the correct value for serverVersion.

Other Platforms

For other platforms, DBAL currently does not implement version-specific platform detection, so specifying the serverVersion parameter has no effect.

However, you can still do so. You can use the string that the following expression returns:

$ connection->getWrappedConnection()->getServerVersion();

Custom Driver Options

The driverOptions option allows to pass arbitrary options through to the driver. This is equivalent to the fourth argument of the PDO constructor.

1	<?php use Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager; //.. $connectionParams = [ 'dbname' => 'mydb', 'user' => 'user', 'password' => 'secret', 'host' => 'localhost', 'driver' => 'pdo_mysql', ]; $conn = DriverManager::getConnection($connectionParams);
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1	<?php use Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager; use Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\DsnParser; //.. $dsnParser = new DsnParser(); $connectionParams = $dsnParser ->parse('mysqli://user:secret@localhost/mydb'); $conn = DriverManager::getConnection($connectionParams);
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1	<?php use Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\DsnParser; //.. $dsnParser = new DsnParser(['mysql' => 'mysqli', 'postgres' => 'pdo_pgsql']); $connectionParams = $dsnParser ->parse('mysql://user:secret@localhost/mydb');
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Maintained

Unmaintained