The Model

Getting Familiar with PHPCR

PHPCR stores all data into one big tree structure. You can compare this to a filesystem where each file and directory contains data. This means that all data stored with PHPCR has a relationship with at least one other data: its parent. The inverse relation also exists, you can also get the children of a data element.

Let's take a look at the dump of the tree of the CMF Sandbox you downloaded in the previous chapter. Go to your directory and execute the following command:

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$ php bin/console doctrine:phpcr:node:dump

The result will be the PHPCR tree:

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ROOT:
    cms:
        menu:
            main:
                admin-item:
                projects-item:
                    cmf-item:
                company-item:
                    team-item:
            ...
        content:
            home:
                phpcr_locale:en:
                phpcr_locale:fr:
                phpcr_locale:de:
                seoMetadata:
                additionalInfoBlock:
                    child1:
            ...
        routes:
            en:
                company:
                    team:
                    more:
                about:
            ...

Each data is called a node in PHPCR. Everything is attached under the ROOT node (created by PHPCR itself).

Each node has properties, which contain the data. The content, title and label you set for your page are saved in such properties for the home node. You can view these properties by adding the --props switch to the dump command:

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$ php bin/console doctrine:phpcr:node:dump --props /cms/content/home

Doctrine PHPCR-ODM

The Symfony CMF uses the Doctrine PHPCR-ODM to interact with PHPCR. Doctrine allows a user to create objects (called documents) which are directly persisted into and retrieved from the PHPCR tree. This is similar to the Doctrine ORM provided by default in the Symfony Standard Edition, but for PHPCR instead of SQL databases.

Creating Content from Code

Now that you know a little bit more about PHPCR and you know the tool to interact with it, you can start using it yourself. In the previous chapter, you edited a page by using a Yaml file which was parsed by the fixture loader of the sandbox. This time, you'll create a page with PHP code.

First, you have to create a new DataFixture to add your new page. You do this by creating a new class in the AppBundle:

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// src/AppBundle/DataFixtures/PHPCR/LoadQuickTourData.php
namespace AppBundle\DataFixtures\PHPCR;

use Doctrine\Common\Persistence\ObjectManager;
use Doctrine\Common\DataFixtures\FixtureInterface;
use Doctrine\Common\DataFixtures\OrderedFixtureInterface;

class LoadQuickTourData implements FixtureInterface, OrderedFixtureInterface
{
    public function getOrder()
    {
        // refers to the order in which the class' load function is called
        // (lower return values are called first)
        return 100;
    }

    public function load(ObjectManager $documentManager)
    {
        // you will add code to this method in the next steps
    }
}

The $documentManager is the object which will persist the document to PHPCR. But first, you have to create a new Page document:

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use Doctrine\ODM\PHPCR\DocumentManager;
use Symfony\Cmf\Bundle\ContentBundle\Doctrine\Phpcr\StaticContent;

// ...
public function load(ObjectManager $documentManager)
{
    if (!$documentManager instanceof DocumentManager) {
        throw new \RuntimeException(sprintf(
            'Fixture requires a PHPCR ODM DocumentManager instance, instance of "%s" given.',
            get_class($documentManager)
        ));
    }

    $content = new StaticContent();
    $content->setName('quick-tour'); // the name of the node
    $content->setTitle('Quick tour new Page');
    $content->setBody('I have added this page myself!');
}

Each document needs a parent. In this case, the parent should be the content root node. To do this, we first retrieve the root document from PHPCR and then set it as its parent:

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public function load(ObjectManager $documentManager)
{
    // ...
    // get the root document
    $contentRoot = $documentManager->find(null, '/cms/content');
    $content->setParentDocument($contentRoot); // set the parent to the root
}

And finally, we have to tell the Document Manager to persist our content document using the Doctrine API:

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public function load(ObjectManager $documentManager)
{
    // ...
    $documentManager->persist($content); // tell the document manager to track the content
    $documentManager->flush(); // doctrine is like a toilet: never forget to flush
}

Now you need to execute the doctrine:phpcr:fixtures:load command again. When dumping the nodes again, your new page should show up under /cms/content/quick-tour!

Final Thoughts

PHPCR is a powerful way to store your pages in a CMS. But, if you're not comfortable with it, you can always switch to another storage layer.

When looking back at these 20 minutes, you should have learned how to work with a new storage layer and you have added 2 new pages. Do you see how easy the CMF works when making your application editable? It provides most of the things you previously had to do yourself.

But you have now only seen a small bit of the CMF, there is much more to learn about and many other bundles are waiting for you. Before you can do all this, you should meet the backbone of the CMF: The routing system. You can read about that in the next chapter. Ready for another 10 minutes?