Symfony
sponsored by SensioLabs
Menu
  • About
  • Documentation
  • Screencasts
  • Cloud
  • Certification
  • Community
  • Businesses
  • News
  • Download
  1. Home
  2. Documentation
  3. Doctrine
  4. How to Work with Lifecycle Callbacks
  • Documentation
  • Book
  • Reference
  • Bundles
  • Cloud
Search by Algolia

How to Work with Lifecycle Callbacks

Edit this page

Warning: You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 4.0, which is no longer maintained.

Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 6.2 (the current stable version).

How to Work with Lifecycle Callbacks

Sometimes, you need to perform an action right before or after an entity is inserted, updated, or deleted. These types of actions are known as "lifecycle" callbacks, as they're callback methods that you need to execute during different stages of the lifecycle of an entity (e.g. the entity is inserted, updated, deleted, etc).

If you're using annotations for your metadata, start by enabling the lifecycle callbacks. This is not necessary if you're using YAML or XML for your mapping.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
/**
 * @ORM\Entity()
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks()
 */
class Product
{
    // ...
}

Now, you can tell Doctrine to execute a method on any of the available lifecycle events. For example, suppose you want to set a createdAt date column to the current date, only when the entity is first persisted (i.e. inserted):

  • Annotations
  • YAML
  • XML
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
// src/Entity/Product.php

/**
 * @ORM\PrePersist
 */
public function setCreatedAtValue()
{
    $this->createdAt = new \DateTime();
}
1
2
3
4
5
6
# config/doctrine/Product.orm.yml
App\Entity\Product:
    type: entity
    # ...
    lifecycleCallbacks:
        prePersist: [setCreatedAtValue]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
<!-- config/doctrine/Product.orm.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<doctrine-mapping xmlns="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping
        http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping.xsd">

    <entity name="App\Entity\Product">
        <!-- ... -->
        <lifecycle-callbacks>
            <lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="setCreatedAtValue" />
        </lifecycle-callbacks>
    </entity>
</doctrine-mapping>

Note

The above example assumes that you've created and mapped a createdAt property (not shown here).

Now, right before the entity is first persisted, Doctrine will automatically call this method and the createdAt field will be set to the current date.

There are several other lifecycle events that you can hook into. For more information on other lifecycle events and lifecycle callbacks in general, see Doctrine's Lifecycle Events documentation.

Lifecycle Callbacks and Event Listeners

Notice that the setCreatedAtValue() method receives no arguments. This is always the case for lifecycle callbacks and is intentional: lifecycle callbacks should be simple methods that are concerned with internally transforming data in the entity (e.g. setting a created/updated field, generating a slug value).

If you need to do some heavier lifting - like performing logging or sending an email - you should register an external class as an event listener or subscriber and give it access to whatever resources you need. For more information, see Doctrine Event Listeners and Subscribers.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
We stand with Ukraine.
Version:
Check Code Performance in Dev, Test, Staging & Production

Check Code Performance in Dev, Test, Staging & Production

Be trained by SensioLabs experts (2 to 6 day sessions -- French or English).

Be trained by SensioLabs experts (2 to 6 day sessions -- French or English).

↓ Our footer now uses the colors of the Ukrainian flag because Symfony stands with the people of Ukraine.

Avatar of Pierre Rineau, a Symfony contributor

Thanks Pierre Rineau for being a Symfony contributor

4 commits • 170 lines changed

View all contributors that help us make Symfony

Become a Symfony contributor

Be an active part of the community and contribute ideas, code and bug fixes. Both experts and newcomers are welcome.

Learn how to contribute

Symfony™ is a trademark of Symfony SAS. All rights reserved.

  • What is Symfony?
    • Symfony at a Glance
    • Symfony Components
    • Case Studies
    • Symfony Releases
    • Security Policy
    • Logo & Screenshots
    • Trademark & Licenses
    • symfony1 Legacy
  • Learn Symfony
    • Symfony Docs
    • Symfony Book
    • Reference
    • Bundles
    • Best Practices
    • Training
    • eLearning Platform
    • Certification
  • Screencasts
    • Learn Symfony
    • Learn PHP
    • Learn JavaScript
    • Learn Drupal
    • Learn RESTful APIs
  • Community
    • SymfonyConnect
    • Support
    • How to be Involved
    • Code of Conduct
    • Events & Meetups
    • Projects using Symfony
    • Downloads Stats
    • Contributors
    • Backers
  • Blog
    • Events & Meetups
    • A week of symfony
    • Case studies
    • Cloud
    • Community
    • Conferences
    • Diversity
    • Documentation
    • Living on the edge
    • Releases
    • Security Advisories
    • SymfonyInsight
    • Twig
    • SensioLabs
  • Services
    • SensioLabs services
    • Train developers
    • Manage your project quality
    • Improve your project performance
    • Host Symfony projects
    Deployed on
Follow Symfony
Search by Algolia