Basic Usage

This library ships with a powerful hydrator that allows almost any use-case.

Create a Hydrator

Creating a Doctrine hydrator requires an object manager (also named entity manager in Doctrine ORM or document manager in Doctrine ODM):

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($objectManager);
2
3

The hydrator constructor has an optional second parameter, byValue, which is true by default. This allows changing the hydrator's way to get/set data by either accessing the public API of your entity (getters/setters) or directly get/set data through reflection, hence bypassing any of your custom logic.

Example 1: Simple Entity with no Associations

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class City
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', length: 48)]
    private ?string $name = null;

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setName(string $name): void
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getName(): ?string
    {
        return $this->name;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Now, let’s use the Doctrine hydrator:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$city = new City();
$data = [
    'name' => 'Paris',
];

$city = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $city);

echo $city->getName(); // prints "Paris"

$dataArray = $hydrator->extract($city);
echo $dataArray['name']; // prints "Paris"
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

As shows in this simple example, the Doctrine hydrator provides nearly no benefits over a simpler hydrator like ClassMethods. However, even in those cases, it provides benefitst such as automatic conversion between types. For instance, it can convert a timestamp to a DateTime instance:

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use DateTime;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class Appointment
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'datetime')]
    private ?DateTime $time = null;

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setTime(DateTime $time): void
    {
        $this->time = $time;
    }

    public function getTime(): ?DateTime
    {
        return $this->time;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

Let’s use the hydrator:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$appointment = new Appointment();
$data = [
    'time' => '1357057334',
];

$appointment = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $appointment);

echo get_class($appointment->getTime()); // prints "DateTime"
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

As you can see, the hydrator automatically converted the timestamp to a DateTime object during the hydration, hence allowing us to have a clean API in our entity with a correct typehint.

Example 2: OneToOne/ManyToOne Associations

Doctrine hydrator is especially useful when dealing with associations (OneToOne, OneToMany, ManyToOne) and integrates nicely with the Form/Fieldset logic (learn more about this here).

A simple example with BlogPost and User entities to illustrate OneToOne association:

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class User
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', length: 48)]
    private ?string $username = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string')]
    private ?string $password = null;

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setUsername(string $username): void
    {
        $this->username = $username;
    }

    public function getUsername(): ?string
    {
        return $this->username;
    }

    public function setPassword(string $password): void
    {
        $this->password = $password;
    }

    public function getPassword(): ?string
    {
        return $this->password;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

And the BlogPost entity, with a ManyToOne association:

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class BlogPost
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity: User::class)]
    private ?User $user = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string')]
    private ?string $title = null;

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setUser(User $user): void
    {
        $this->user = $user;
    }

    public function getUser(): ?User
    {
        return $this->user;
    }

    public function setTitle(string $title): void
    {
        $this->title = $title;
    }

    public function getTitle(): ?string
    {
        return $this->title;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

There are two use cases that can arise when using OneToOne associations: the toOne entity (in this case, the User) may already exist (which will often be the case with a User and BlogPost example), or it needs to be created. The Doctrined hydrator natively supports both cases.

Existing Entity in the Association

When the association’s entity already exists, all you need to do is give the identifier of the association:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$blogPost = new BlogPost();
$data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'user'  => [
        'id' => 2, // Written by user 2
    ],
];

$blogPost = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $blogPost);

echo $blogPost->getTitle(); // prints "The best blog post in the world!"
echo $blogPost->getUser()->getId(); // prints 2
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

NOTE : when using association whose primary key is not compound, you can rewrite the following more succinctly:

1 $data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'user'  => [
        'id' => 2, // Written by user 2
    ],
];
2
3
4
5
6

to:

1 $data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'user'  => 2,
];
2
3
4

Non-existing Entity in the Association

If the association’s entity does not exist, you just need to provide the actual object to the hydrator:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$blogPost = new BlogPost();
$user = new User();
$user->setUsername('bakura');
$user->setPassword('p@$$w0rd');

$data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'user'  => $user,
];

$blogPost = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $blogPost);

echo $blogPost->getTitle(); // prints "The best blog post in the world!"
echo $blogPost->getUser()->getId(); // prints 2
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

For this to work, you must also slightly change your mapping, so that Doctrine can persist new entities on associations (note the cascade options on the ManyToOne association):

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class BlogPost
{
    /** .. */

    #[ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity: User::class, cascade: ['persist'])]
    private ?User $user = null;

    /** … */
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

It’s also possible to use a nested fieldset for the User data. The hydrator will use the mapping data to determine the identifiers for the toOne relation and either attempt to find the existing record or instanciate a new target instance which will be hydrated before it is passed to the BlogPost entity.

Adding users via a blog post is not recommended.

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager, BlogPost::class);
$blogPost = new BlogPost();

$data = [
    'title' => 'Art thou mad?',
    'user' => [
        'id' => '',
        'username' => 'willshakes',
        'password' => '2BorN0t2B',
    ],
];

$blogPost = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $blogPost);

echo $blogPost->getUser()->getUsername(); // prints willshakes
echo $blogPost->getUser()->getPassword(); // prints 2BorN0t2B
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Example 3: OneToMany Association

Doctrine hydrator can also handle OneToMany relationships (when using a Laminas\Form\Element\Collection element). Please refer to the Laminas documentation to learn more about Collection elements.

Internally, for a given collection, if an array contains identifiers, the hydrator automatically fetches the objects through the Doctrine find function. However, this may cause problems if one of the values of the collection is the empty string ’’ (as the find will most likely fail). In order to solve this problem, empty string identifiers are simply ignored during the hydration phase. Therefore, if your database contains an empty string value as a primary key, the hydrator may not work correctly (the simplest way to avoid that is simply to not have an empty string primary key, which should not happen if you use auto-increment primary keys, anyway).

For example consider, again the BlogPost and Tag entities:

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class BlogPost
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity: Tag::class, mappedBy: 'blogPost')]
    private Collection $tags;

    /**
     * Never forget to initialize your collections!
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->tags = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function addTags(Collection $tags): void
    {
        foreach ($tags as $tag) {
            $tag->setBlogPost($this);
            $this->tags->add($tag);
        }
    }

    public function removeTags(Collection $tags): void
    {
        foreach ($tags as $tag) {
            $tag->setBlogPost(null);
            $this->tags->removeElement($tag);
        }
    }

    public function getTags(): Collection
    {
        return $this->tags;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51

And the Tag entity:

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class Tag
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity: BlogPost::class, inversedBy: 'tags')]
    private ?BlogPost $blogPost = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string')]
    private ?string $name = null;

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Allow null to remove association
     */
    public function setBlogPost(?BlogPost $blogPost = null): void
    {
        $this->blogPost = $blogPost;
    }

    public function getBlogPost(): ?BlogPost
    {
        return $this->blogPost;
    }

    public function setName(string $name): void
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getName(): ?string
    {
        return $this->name;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

Please note some interesting things in the BlogPost entity. There are defined two functions: addTags and removeTags. Those functions must be always defined and are called automatically by the Doctrine hydrator when dealing with collections. This is not overkill and is preferred to just a setTags function to replace the old collection with a new one:

1 public function setTags(Collection $tags): void
{
    $this->tags = $tags;
}
2
3
4

This is considered a bad design because Doctrine collections should not be swapped; mostly because collections are managed by an object manager and must not be replaced by a new instance.

Once again, two cases may arise: the tags already exist or they do not.

Example 4: Embedded Entities

Doctrine provides so-called embeddables as a layer of abstraction that allows reusing partial objects across entities. For example, one might have an entity Address which is not only used for a Person, but also for an Organization. First, we have a Tag class, which will be our embeddable:

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * Address class for embedding in entities.
 */
#[ORM\Embeddable]
class Tag
{
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', nullable: true)]
    private ?string $postalCode = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', nullable: true)]
    private ?string $city = null;

    public function getPostalCode(): ?string
    {
        return $this->postalCode;
    }

    public function setPostalCode(?string $postalCode): void
    {
        $this->postalCode = $postalCode;
    }

    public function getCity(): ?string
    {
        return $this->city;
    }

    public function setCity(?string $city): void
    {
        $this->city = $city;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

Then we have a corresponding Person entity, where the above embeddable is used:

1 <?php

namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class Person
{
    #[ORM\Id]
    #[ORM\GeneratedValue]
    private ?int $id = null;

    #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', nullable: true)]
    private ?string $name = null;

    #[ORM\Embedded(class: 'Address')]
    private Address $address;

    /**
     * Similar to collections you should initialize embeddables in the constructor!
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->address = new Address();
    }

    public function getId(): ?int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function getName(): ?string
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    public function setName(?string $name): void
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getAddress(): Address
    {
        return $this->address;
    }
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47

The hydrator provided by this module will require the data for the embeddable to be in a separate array, as follows:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$person = new Person();
$data = [
    'name' => 'Mr. Example',
    'address'  => [
        [
            'postalCode' => '48149',
            'city' => 'Münster',
        ],
    ],
];

$person = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $person);

echo $person->getAddress()->getPostalCode(); // prints "48149"
echo $person->getAddress()->getCity();       // prints "Münster"
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Existing Entity in the Association

When the association’s entity already exists, just provide the identifiers of these entities:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$blogPost = new BlogPost();
$data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'tags'  => [
        ['id' => 3], // add tag whose id is 3
        ['id' => 8], // also add tag whose id is 8
    ],
];

$blogPost = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $blogPost);

echo $blogPost->getTitle(); // prints "The best blog post in the world!"
echo count($blogPost->getTags()); // prints 2
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Note, again, that

1 $data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'tags'  => [
        ['id' => 3], // add tag whose id is 3
        ['id' => 8], // also add tag whose id is 8
    ],
];
2
3
4
5
6
7

can be written:

1 $data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'tags'  => [3, 8],
];
2
3
4

Non-existing Entity in the Association

If the association’s entity does not exist, you need to provide the actual object:

1 use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator;

$hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($entityManager);
$blogPost = new BlogPost();

$tags = [];

$tag1 = new Tag();
$tag1->setName('PHP');
$tags[] = $tag1;

$tag2 = new Tag();
$tag2->setName('STL');
$tags[] = $tag2;

$data = [
    'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!',
    'tags'  => $tags, // Note that you can mix integers and entities without any problem
];

$blogPost = $hydrator->hydrate($data, $blogPost);

echo $blogPost->getTitle(); // prints "The best blog post in the world!"
echo count($blogPost->getTags()); // prints 2
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

For this to work, you must also slightly change your mapping, so that Doctrine can persist new entities on associations (note the cascade options on the OneToMany association):

1 namespace Application\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;

#[ORM\Entity]
class BlogPost
{
    /** .. */

    #[ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity: Tag::class, mappedBy: 'blogPost', cascade: ['persist'])]
    private Collection $tags;

    /** … */
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Handling of Null Values

When a null value is passed to a OneToOne or ManyToOne field, for example:

1 $data = [
    'city' => null,
];
2
3

The hydrator will check whether the setCity() method on the Entity allows null values and act accordingly. The following describes the process that happens when a null value is received:

If the setCity() method DOES NOT allow null values i.e. function setCity(City $city), the null is silently ignored and will not be hydrated.
If the setCity() method DOES allow null values i.e. function setCity(City $city = null), the null value will be hydrated.

1	use Doctrine\Laminas\Hydrator\DoctrineObject as DoctrineHydrator; $hydrator = new DoctrineHydrator($objectManager);
2
3

1	namespace Application\Entity; use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM; #[ORM\Entity] class City { #[ORM\Id] #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')] #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')] private ?int $id = null; #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', length: 48)] private ?string $name = null; public function getId(): ?int { return $this->id; } public function setName(string $name): void { $this->name = $name; } public function getName(): ?string { return $this->name; } }
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

1	namespace Application\Entity; use DateTime; use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM; #[ORM\Entity] class Appointment { #[ORM\Id] #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')] #[ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy: 'AUTO')] private ?int $id = null; #[ORM\Column(type: 'datetime')] private ?DateTime $time = null; public function getId(): ?int { return $this->id; } public function setTime(DateTime $time): void { $this->time = $time; } public function getTime(): ?DateTime { return $this->time; } }
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

1	$data = [ 'title' => 'The best blog post in the world!', 'user' => [ 'id' => 2, // Written by user 2 ], ];
2
3
4
5
6

1	public function setTags(Collection $tags): void { $this->tags = $tags; }
2
3
4

1	<?php namespace Application\Entity; use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM; #[ORM\Entity] class Person { #[ORM\Id] #[ORM\GeneratedValue] private ?int $id = null; #[ORM\Column(type: 'string', nullable: true)] private ?string $name = null; #[ORM\Embedded(class: 'Address')] private Address $address; /** * Similar to collections you should initialize embeddables in the constructor! */ public function __construct() { $this->address = new Address(); } public function getId(): ?int { return $this->id; } public function getName(): ?string { return $this->name; } public function setName(?string $name): void { $this->name = $name; } public function getAddress(): Address { return $this->address; } }
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47

Maintained

Unmaintained