Defining Models

Introduction

All DBMS provide multiple choice of data types for the information that can be stored in their database table fields. However, the set of data types made available varies from DBMS to DBMS.

To simplify the interface with the DBMS supported by Doctrine, a base set of data types was defined. Applications may access them independently of the underlying DBMS.

The Doctrine applications programming interface takes care of mapping data types when managing database options. It is also able to convert that is sent to and received from the underlying DBMS using the respective driver.

The following data type examples should be used with Doctrine's createTable method. The example array at the end of the data types section may be used with createTable to create a portable table on the DBMS of choice (please refer to the main Doctrine documentation to find out what DBMS back ends are properly supported). It should also be noted that the following examples do not cover the creation and maintenance of indices, this chapter is only concerned with data types and the proper usage thereof.

It should be noted that the length of the column affects in database level type as well as application level validated length (the length that is validated with Doctrine validators).

1. Example: Column named content with type string and length 3000 results in database type TEXT of which has database level length of 4000. However when the record is validated it is only allowed to have 'content' -column with maximum length of 3000.
2. Example: Column with type integer and length 1 results in TINYINT on many databases.

In general Doctrine is smart enough to know which integer/string type to use depending on the specified length.

Type modifiers

Within the Doctrine API there are a few modifiers that have been designed to aid in optimal table design. These are:

• The notnull modifiers
• The length modifiers
• The default modifiers
• unsigned modifiers for some field definitions, although not all DBMS's support this modifier for integer field types.
• collation modifiers (not supported by all drivers)
• fixed length modifiers for some field definitions.

Building upon the above, we can say that the modifiers alter the field definition to create more specific field types for specific usage scenarios. The notnull modifier will be used in the following way to set the default DBMS NOT NULL Flag on the field to true or false, depending on the DBMS's definition of the field value: In PostgreSQL the "NOT NULL" definition will be set to "NOT NULL", whilst in MySQL (for example) the "NULL" option will be set to "NO". In order to define a "NOT NULL" field type, we simply add an extra parameter to our definition array (See the examples in the following section)

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'sometime' = array(
    'type' => 'time',
    'default' => '12:34:05',
    'notnull' => true,
),
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Using the above example, we can also explore the default field operator. Default is set in the same way as the notnull operator to set a default value for the field. This value may be set in any character set that the DBMS supports for text fields, and any other valid data for the field's data type. In the above example, we have specified a valid time for the "Time" data type, '12:34:05'. Remember that when setting default dates and times, as well as datetimes, you should research and stay within the epoch of your chosen DBMS, otherwise you will encounter difficult to diagnose errors!

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'sometext' = array(
    'type' => 'string',
    'length' => 12,
),
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The above example will create a character varying field of length 12 characters in the database table. If the length definition is left out, Doctrine will create a length of the maximum allowable length for the data type specified, which may create a problem with some field types and indexing. Best practice is to define lengths for all or most of your fields.

Boolean

The boolean data type represents only two values that can be either 1 or 0. Do not assume that these data types are stored as integers because some DBMS drivers may implement this type with single character text fields for a matter of efficiency. Ternary logic is possible by using null as the third possible value that may be assigned to fields of this type.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('booltest', 'boolean');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    booltest: boolean
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Integer

The integer type is the same as integer type in PHP. It may store integer values as large as each DBMS may handle.

Fields of this type may be created optionally as unsigned integers but not all DBMS support it. Therefore, such option may be ignored. Truly portable applications should not rely on the availability of this option.

The integer type maps to different database type depending on the column length.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('integertest', 'integer', 4, array(
            'unsigned' => true
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    integertest:
      type: integer(4)
      unsigned: true
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Float

The float data type may store floating point decimal numbers. This data type is suitable for representing numbers withina large scale range that do not require high accuracy. The scale and the precision limits of the values that may be stored in a database depends on the DBMS that it is used.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('floattest', 'float');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    floattest: float
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Decimal

The decimal data type may store fixed precision decimal numbers. This data type is suitable for representing numbers that require high precision and accuracy.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('decimaltest', 'decimal');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    decimaltest: decimal
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You can specify the length of the decimal just like you would set the length of any other column and you can specify the scale as an option in the third argument:

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition() {
        $this->hasColumn('decimaltest', 'decimal', 18,
            array('scale' => 2)
        );
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    decimaltest:
      type: decimal(18)
      scale: 2
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String

The text data type is available with two options for the length: one that is explicitly length limited and another of undefined length that should be as large as the database allows.

The length limited option is the most recommended for efficiency reasons. The undefined length option allows very large fields but may prevent the use of indexes, nullability and may not allow sorting on fields of its type.

The fields of this type should be able to handle 8 bit characters. Drivers take care of DBMS specific escaping of characters of special meaning with the values of the strings to be converted to this type.

By default Doctrine will use variable length character types. If fixed length types should be used can be controlled via the fixed modifier.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('stringtest', 'string', 200, array(
            'fixed' => true
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    stringtest:
      type: string(200)
      fixed: true
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Array

This is the same as the 'array' type in PHP:

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('arraytest', 'array', 10000);
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    arraytest: array(10000)
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Object

Doctrine supports objects as column types. Basically you can set an object to a field and Doctrine handles automatically the serialization / unserialization of that object.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('objecttest', 'object');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    objecttest: object
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Blob

Blob (Binary Large OBject) data type is meant to store data of undefined length that may be too large to store in text fields, like data that is usually stored in files.

Blob fields are usually not meant to be used as parameters of query search clause (WHERE) unless the underlying DBMS supports a feature usually known as "full text search".

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('blobtest', 'blob');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    blobtest: blob
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Clob

Clob (Character Large OBject) data type is meant to store data of undefined length that may be too large to store in text fields, like data that is usually stored in files.

Clob fields are meant to store only data made of printable ASCII characters whereas blob fields are meant to store all types of data.

Clob fields are usually not meant to be used as parameters of query search clause (WHERE) unless the underlying DBMS supports a feature usually known as "full text search".

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('clobtest', 'clob');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    clobtest: clob
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Timestamp

The timestamp data type is a mere combination of the date and the time of the day data types. The representation of values of the time stamp type is accomplished by joining the date and time string values in a single string joined by a space. Therefore, the format template is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS. The represented values obey the same rules and ranges described for the date and time data types.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('timestamptest', 'timestamp');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    timestamptest: timestamp
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Time

The time data type may represent the time of a given moment of the day. DBMS independent representation of the time of the day is also accomplished by using text strings formatted according to the ISO-8601 standard.

The format defined by the ISO-8601 standard for the time of the day is HH:MI:SS where HH is the number of hour the day from 00 to 23 and MI and SS are respectively the number of the minute and of the second from 00 to 59. Hours, minutes and seconds numbered below 10 should be padded on the left with 0.

Some DBMS have native support for time of the day formats, but for others the DBMS driver may have to represent them as integers or text values. In any case, it is always possible to make comparisons between time values as well sort query results by fields of this type.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('timetest', 'time');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    timetest: time
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Date

The date data type may represent dates with year, month and day. DBMS independent representation of dates is accomplished by using text strings formatted according to the IS0-8601 standard.

The format defined by the ISO-8601 standard for dates is YYYY-MM-DD where YYYY is the number of the year (Gregorian calendar), MM is the number of the month from 01 to 12 and DD is the number of the day from 01 to 31. Months or days numbered below 10 should be padded on the left with 0.

Some DBMS have native support for date formats, but for others the DBMS driver may have to represent them as integers or text values. In any case, it is always possible to make comparisons between date values as well sort query results by fields of this type.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('datetest', 'date');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    datetest: date
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Enum

Doctrine has a unified enum type. The possible values for the column can be specified on the column definition with Doctrine_Record::hasColumn

$ conn->setAttribute(Doctrine_Core::ATTR_USE_NATIVE_ENUM, true);

Here is an example of how to specify the enum values:

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('enumtest', 'enum', null,
            array('values' => array('php', 'java', 'python'))
        );
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    enumtest:
      type: enum
      values: [php, java, python]
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Gzip

Gzip datatype is the same as string except that its automatically compressed when persisted and uncompressed when fetched. This datatype can be useful when storing data with a large compressibility ratio, such as bitmap images.

class Test extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('gziptest', 'gzip');
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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Test:
  columns:
    gziptest: gzip
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One to One

One-to-one relations are probably the most basic relations. In the following example we have two classes, User and Email with their relation being one-to-one.

First lets take a look at the Email class. Since we are binding a one-to-one relationship we are using the hasOne method. Notice how we define the foreign key column (user_id) in the Email class. This is due to a fact that Email is owned by the User class and not the other way around. In fact you should always follow this convention - always place the foreign key in the owned class.

The recommended naming convention for foreign key columns is: [tableName]_[primaryKey]. As here the foreign table is 'user' and its primary key is 'id' we have named the foreign key column as 'user_id'.

// models/Email.php
class Email extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('user_id', 'integer');
        $this->hasColumn('address', 'string', 150);
    }

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasOne('User', array(
            'local' => 'user_id',
            'foreign' => 'id'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
Email:
  columns:
      user_id: integer
      address: string(150)
  relations:
      User:
      local: user_id
      foreign: id
      foreignType: one
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The Email class is very similar to the User class. Notice how the local and foreign columns are switched in the hasOne definition compared to the definition of the Email class.

// models/User.php
class User extends BaseUser
{
    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();
        $this->hasOne('Email', array(
            'local' => 'id',
            'foreign' => 'user_id'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
User:
    # ...
    relations:
        # ...
        Email:
            local: id
            foreign: user_id
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One to Many and Many to One

One-to-Many and Many-to-One relations are very similar to One-to-One relations. The recommended conventions you came in terms with in the previous chapter also apply to one-to-many and many-to-one relations.

In the following example we have two classes: User and Phonenumber. We define their relation as one-to-many (a user can have many phonenumbers). Here once again the Phonenumber is clearly owned by the User so we place the foreign key in the Phonenumber class.

// models/User.php
class User extends BaseUser
{
    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();

        // ...

        $this->hasMany('Phonenumber as Phonenumbers', array(
            'local' => 'id',
            'foreign' => 'user_id'
        ));
    }
}

// models/Phonenumber.php
class Phonenumber extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('user_id', 'integer');
        $this->hasColumn('phonenumber', 'string', 50);
    }

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasOne('User', array(
            'local' => 'user_id',
            'foreign' => 'id'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
User:
  # ...
  relations:
    # ...
    Phonenumbers:
      type: many
      class: Phonenumber
      local: id
      foreign: user_id

Phonenumber:
  columns:
    user_id: integer
    phonenumber: string(50)
  relations:
    User:
      local: user_id
      foreign: id
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Tree Structure

A tree structure is a self-referencing foreign key relation. The following definition is also called Adjacency List implementation in terms of hierarchical data concepts.

// models/Task.php
class Task extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('name', 'string', 100);
        $this->hasColumn('parent_id', 'integer');
    }

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasOne('Task as Parent', array(
            'local' => 'parent_id',
            'foreign' => 'id'
        ));
        $this->hasMany('Task as Subtasks', array(
            'local' => 'id',
            'foreign' => 'parent_id'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
Task:
  columns:
    name: string(100)
    parent_id: integer
  relations:
    Parent:
      class: Task
      local: parent_id
      foreign: id
      foreignAlias: Subtasks
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Many to Many

If you are coming from relational database background it may be familiar to you how many-to-many associations are handled: an additional association table is needed.

In many-to-many relations the relation between the two components is always an aggregate relation and the association table is owned by both ends. For example in the case of users and groups: when a user is being deleted, the groups he/she belongs to are not being deleted. However, the associations between this user and the groups he/she belongs to are instead being deleted. This removes the relation between the user and the groups he/she belonged to, but does not remove the user nor the groups.

Sometimes you may not want that association table rows are being deleted when user / group is being deleted. You can override this behavior by setting the relations to association component (in this case Groupuser) explicitly.

In the following example we have Groups and Users of which relation is defined as many-to-many. In this case we also need to define an additional class called Groupuser.

class User extends BaseUser
{
    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();

        // ...

        $this->hasMany('Group as Groups', array(
            'local' => 'user_id',
            'foreign' => 'group_id',
            'refClass' => 'UserGroup'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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User:
    # ...
    relations:
        # ...
        Groups:
            class: Group
            local: user_id
            foreign: group_id
            refClass: UserGroup
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// models/Group.php
class Group extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->setTableName('groups');
        $this->hasColumn('name', 'string', 30);
    }

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasMany('User as Users', array(
            'local' => 'group_id',
            'foreign' => 'user_id',
            'refClass' => 'UserGroup'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
Group:
  tableName: groups
  columns:
    name: string(30)
  relations:
    Users:
      class: User
      local: group_id
      foreign: user_id
      refClass: UserGroup
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$ manager->setAttribute(Doctrine_Core::Doctrine_Core::ATTR_QUOTE_IDENTIFIER,
true);

// models/UserGroup.php
class UserGroup extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('user_id', 'integer', null, array(
            'primary' => true
        ));
        $this->hasColumn('group_id', 'integer', null, array(
            'primary' => true
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
UserGroup:
  columns:
    user_id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
    group_id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
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Notice how the relationship is bi-directional. Both User has many Group and Group has many User. This is required by Doctrine in order for many-to-many relationships to fully work.

Now lets play around with the new models and create a user and assign it some groups. First create a new User instance:

// test.php
$ user = new User();

Now add two new groups to the User:

// ...
$ user->Groups[0]->name = 'First Group';
$ user->Groups[1]->name = 'Second Group';

Now you can save the groups to the database:

// ...
$ user->save();

Now you can delete the associations between user and groups it belongs to:

// ...
$ user->UserGroup->delete();

$ groups = new Doctrine_Collection(Doctrine_Core::getTable('Group'));

$ groups[0]->name = 'Third Group';
$ groups[1]->name = 'Fourth Group';

$ user->Groups[2] = $groups[0]; // $user will now have 3 groups

$ user->Groups = $groups; // $user will now have two groups 'Third Group' and 'Fourth Group'

$ user->save();

Now if we inspect the $user object data with the Doctrine_Record::toArray:

// ...
print_r($user->toArray(true));

The above example would produce the following output

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$ php test.php
Array
    (
        [id] => 1
        [is_active] => 1
        [is_super_admin] => 0
        [first_name] =>
        [last_name] =>
        [username] => default username
        [password] =>
        [type] =>
        [created_at] => 2009-01-20 16:48:57
        [updated_at] => 2009-01-20 16:48:57
        [Groups] => Array
            (
                [0] => Array
                    (
                        [id] => 3
                        [name] => Third Group
                    )
            [1] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 4
                    [name] => Fourth Group
                )
            )
        [UserGroup] => Array
            (
            )
    )
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Self Referencing (Nest Relations)

// models/User.php
class User extends BaseUser
{
    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();

        // ...

        $this->hasMany('User as Parents', array(
            'local'    => 'child_id',
            'foreign'  => 'parent_id',
            'refClass' => 'UserReference'
        ));

        $this->hasMany('User as Children', array(
            'local'    => 'parent_id',
            'foreign'  => 'child_id',
            'refClass' => 'UserReference'
        ));
    }
}

// models/UserReference.php
class UserReference extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('parent_id', 'integer', null, array(
            'primary' => true
        ));
        $this->hasColumn('child_id', 'integer', null, array(
            'primary' => true
        ));
    }
}

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# schema.yml
User:
  # ...
  relations:
    # ...
    Parents:
      class: User
      local: child_id
      foreign: parent_id
      refClass: UserReference
      foreignAlias: Children

UserReference:
  columns:
    parent_id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
    child_id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
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// models/User.php
class User extends BaseUser
{

    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();

        // ...

        $this->hasMany('User as Friends', array(
            'local'    => 'user1',
            'foreign'  => 'user2',
            'refClass' => 'FriendReference',
            'equal'    => true,
        ));
    }
}

// models/FriendReference.php
class FriendReference extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('user1', 'integer', null, array(
            'primary' => true
        ));
        $this->hasColumn('user2', 'integer', null, array(
            'primary' => true
        ));
    }
}

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# schema.yml
User:
  # ...
  relations:
    # ...
    Friends:
      class: User
      local: user1
      foreign: user2
      refClass: FriendReference
      equal: true

FriendReference:
  columns:
    user1:
      type: integer
      primary: true
    user2:
      type: integer
      primary: true
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// test.php
$ daniels = new User();
$ daniels->username = 'Jack Daniels';

$ brandy = new User();
$ brandy->username = 'John Brandy';

$ koskenkorva = new User();
$ koskenkorva->username = 'Mikko Koskenkorva';

$ beer = new User();
$ beer->username = 'Stefan Beer';

$ daniels->Friends[0] = $brandy;

$ koskenkorva->Friends[0] = $daniels;
$ koskenkorva->Friends[1] = $brandy;
$ koskenkorva->Friends[2] = $beer;

$ conn->flush();

// ...
$ beer->free();
unset($beer);
$ user = Doctrine_Core::getTable('User')->findOneByUsername('Stefan Beer');

print_r($user->Friends->toArray());

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$ php test.php
Array
    (
        [0] => Array
            (
                [id] => 4
                [is_active] => 1
                [is_super_admin] => 0
                [first_name] =>
                [last_name] =>
                [username] => Mikko Koskenkorva
                [password] =>
                [type] =>
                [created_at] => 2009-01-20 16:53:13
                [updated_at] => 2009-01-20 16:53:13
            )
    )
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Introduction

A foreign key constraint specifies that the values in a column (or a group of columns) must match the values appearing in some row of another table. In other words foreign key constraints maintain the referential integrity between two related tables.

Say you have the product table with the following definition:

// models/Product.php
class Product extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->hasColumn('name', 'string');
        $this->hasColumn('price', 'decimal', 18);
        $this->hasColumn('discounted_price', 'decimal', 18);
    }

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasMany('Order as Orders', array(
            'local' => 'id',
            'foreign' => 'product_id'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
Product:
  columns:
    name:
      type: string
    price:
      type: decimal(18)
    discounted_price:
      type: decimal(18)
    relations:
      Orders:
        class: Order
        local: id
        foreign: product_id
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Let's also assume you have a table storing orders of those products. We want to ensure that the order table only contains orders of products that actually exist. So we define a foreign key constraint in the orders table that references the products table:

// models/Order.php
class Order extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        $this->setTableName('orders');
        $this->hasColumn('product_id', 'integer');
        $this->hasColumn('quantity', 'integer');
    }

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasOne('Product', array(
            'local' => 'product_id',
            'foreign' => 'id'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
Order:
  tableName: orders
  columns:
    product_id: integer
    quantity: integer
    relations:
      Product:
        local: product_id
        foreign: id
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When exported the class Order would execute the following SQL:

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CREATE TABLE orders (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
    product_id INTEGER REFERENCES products (id),
    quantity INTEGER,
    INDEX product_id_idx (product_id)
)
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Now it is impossible to create orders with a product_id that does not appear in the product table.

We say that in this situation the orders table is the referencing table and the products table is the referenced table. Similarly, there are referencing and referenced columns.

Foreign Key Names

When you define a relationship in Doctrine, when the foreign key is created in the database for you Doctrine will try to create a foreign key name for you. Sometimes though, this name may not be something you want so you can customize the name to use with the foreignKeyName option to your relationship setup.

// models/Order.php
class Order extends Doctrine_Record
{
    // ...

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->hasOne('Product', array(
            'local' => 'product_id',
            'foreign' => 'id',
            'foreignKeyName' => 'product_id_fk'
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter:

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# schema.yml
Order:
    # ...
    relations:
        Product:
            local: product_id
            foreign: id
            foreignKeyName: product_id_fk
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Integrity Actions

class Phonenumber extends Doctrine_Record
{
    // ...

    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();

        // ...

        $this->hasOne('User', array(
            'local' => 'user_id',
            'foreign' => 'id',
            'onDelete' => 'CASCADE'
        ));
    }
}

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# schema.yml
Phonenumber:
    # ...
    relations:
        # ...
        User:
            local: user_id
            foreign: id
            onDelete: CASCADE
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Save Cascades

You may already have noticed that save operations are already cascaded to associated objects by default.

Delete Cascades

Doctrine provides a second application-level cascade style: delete. Unlike the save cascade, the delete cascade needs to be turned on explicitly as can be seen in the following code snippet:

// models/User.php
class User extends BaseUser
{
    // ...
    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setup();

        // ...

        $this->hasMany('Address as Addresses', array(
            'local' => 'id',
            'foreign' => 'user_id',
            'cascade' => array('delete')
        ));
    }
}

Here is the same example in YAML format. You can read more about YAML in the YAML Schema Files chapter

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# schema.yml
User:
    # ...
    relations:
        # ...
        Addresses:
            class: Address
            local: id
            foreign: user_id
            cascade: [delete]
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The cascade option is used to specify the operations that are cascaded to the related objects on the application-level.

In the example above, Doctrine would cascade the deletion of a User to it's associated Addresses. The following describes the generic procedure when you delete a record through $record->delete:

1. Doctrine looks at the relations to see if there are any deletion cascades it needs to apply. If there are no deletion cascades, go to 3).
2. For each relation that has a delete cascade specified, Doctrine verifies that the objects that are the target of the cascade are loaded. That usually means that Doctrine fetches the related objects from the database if they're not yet loaded.(Exception: many-valued associations are always re-fetched from the database, to make sure all objects are loaded). For each associated object, proceed with step 1).
3. Doctrine orders all deletions and executes them in the most efficient way, maintaining referential integrity.

From this description one thing should be instantly clear: Application-level cascades happen on the object-level, meaning operations are cascaded from one object to another and in order to do that the participating objects need to be available.

This has some important implications:

• Application-level delete cascades don't perform well on many-valued associations when there are a lot of objects in the related collection (that is because they need to be fetched from the database, the actual deletion is pretty efficient).
• Application-level delete cascades do not skip the object lifecycle as database-level cascades do (see next chapter). Therefore all registered event listeners and other callback methods are properly executed in an application-level cascade.