Doctrine Events
Doctrine, the set of PHP libraries used by Symfony to work with databases, provides a lightweight event system to update entities during the application execution. These events, called lifecycle events, allow to perform tasks such as "update the createdAt property automatically right before persisting entities of this type".
Doctrine triggers events before/after performing the most common entity
operations (e.g. prePersist/postPersist
, preUpdate/postUpdate
) and also
on other common tasks (e.g. loadClassMetadata
, onClear
).
There are different ways to listen to these Doctrine events:
- Lifecycle callbacks, they are defined as public methods on the entity classes and they are called when the events are triggered;
- Lifecycle listeners and subscribers, they are classes with callback methods for one or more events and they are called for all entities;
- Entity listeners, they are similar to lifecycle listeners, but they are called only for the entities of a certain class.
These are the drawbacks and advantages of each one:
- Callbacks have better performance because they only apply to a single entity class, but you can't reuse the logic for different entities and they don't have access to Symfony services;
- Lifecycle listeners and subscribers can reuse logic among different entities and can access Symfony services but their performance is worse because they are called for all entities;
- Entity listeners have the same advantages of lifecycle listeners and they have better performance because they only apply to a single entity class.
This article only explains the basics about Doctrine events when using them inside a Symfony application. Read the official docs about Doctrine events to learn everything about them.
See also
This article covers listeners and subscribers for Doctrine ORM. If you are using ODM for MongoDB, read the DoctrineMongoDBBundle documentation.
Doctrine Lifecycle Callbacks
Lifecycle callbacks are defined as public methods inside the entity you want to modify.
For example, suppose you want to set a createdAt
date column to the current
date, but only when the entity is first persisted (i.e. inserted). To do so,
define a callback for the prePersist
Doctrine event:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
// src/Entity/Product.php
namespace App\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
// When using annotations, don't forget to add @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks()
// to the class of the entity where you define the callback
/**
* @ORM\Entity()
* @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks()
*/
class Product
{
// ...
/**
* @ORM\PrePersist
*/
public function setCreatedAtValue(): void
{
$this->createdAt = new \DateTimeImmutable();
}
}
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
// src/Entity/Product.php
namespace App\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
// When using attributes, don't forget to add #[ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks]
// to the class of the entity where you define the callback
#[ORM\Entity]
#[ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks]
class Product
{
// ...
#[ORM\PrePersist]
public function setCreatedAtValue(): void
{
$this->createdAt = new \DateTimeImmutable();
}
}
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
https://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
Some lifecycle callbacks receive an argument that provides access to
useful information such as the current entity manager (e.g. the preUpdate
callback receives a PreUpdateEventArgs $event
argument).
Doctrine Lifecycle Listeners
Lifecycle listeners are defined as PHP classes that listen to a single Doctrine
event on all the application entities. For example, suppose that you want to
update some search index whenever a new entity is persisted in the database. To
do so, define a listener for the postPersist
Doctrine event:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
// src/EventListener/SearchIndexer.php
namespace App\EventListener;
use App\Entity\Product;
use Doctrine\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs;
class SearchIndexer
{
// the listener methods receive an argument which gives you access to
// both the entity object of the event and the entity manager itself
public function postPersist(LifecycleEventArgs $args): void
{
$entity = $args->getObject();
// if this listener only applies to certain entity types,
// add some code to check the entity type as early as possible
if (!$entity instanceof Product) {
return;
}
$entityManager = $args->getObjectManager();
// ... do something with the Product entity
}
}
The next step is to enable the Doctrine listener in the Symfony application by
creating a new service for it and tagging it
with the doctrine.event_listener
tag:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
# config/services.yaml
services:
# ...
App\EventListener\SearchIndexer:
tags:
-
name: 'doctrine.event_listener'
# this is the only required option for the lifecycle listener tag
event: 'postPersist'
# listeners can define their priority in case multiple subscribers or listeners are associated
# to the same event (default priority = 0; higher numbers = listener is run earlier)
priority: 500
# you can also restrict listeners to a specific Doctrine connection
connection: 'default'
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
<!-- config/services.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xmlns:doctrine="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/doctrine">
<services>
<!-- ... -->
<!--
* 'event' is the only required option that defines the lifecycle listener
* 'priority': used when multiple subscribers or listeners are associated to the same event
* (default priority = 0; higher numbers = listener is run earlier)
* 'connection': restricts the listener to a specific Doctrine connection
-->
<service id="App\EventListener\SearchIndexer">
<tag name="doctrine.event_listener"
event="postPersist"
priority="500"
connection="default"/>
</service>
</services>
</container>
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
// config/services.php
namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;
use App\EventListener\SearchIndexer;
return static function (ContainerConfigurator $container) {
$services = $container->services();
// listeners are applied by default to all Doctrine connections
$services->set(SearchIndexer::class)
->tag('doctrine.event_listener', [
// this is the only required option for the lifecycle listener tag
'event' => 'postPersist',
// listeners can define their priority in case multiple subscribers or listeners are associated
// to the same event (default priority = 0; higher numbers = listener is run earlier)
'priority' => 500,
# you can also restrict listeners to a specific Doctrine connection
'connection' => 'default',
])
;
};
Tip
Symfony loads (and instantiates) Doctrine listeners only when the related Doctrine event is actually fired; whereas Doctrine subscribers are always loaded (and instantiated) by Symfony, making them less performant.
Tip
The value of the connection
option can also be a
configuration parameter.
5.4
The feature to allow using configuration parameters in connection
was introduced in Symfony 5.4.
Doctrine Entity Listeners
Entity listeners are defined as PHP classes that listen to a single Doctrine
event on a single entity class. For example, suppose that you want to send some
notifications whenever a User
entity is modified in the database. To do so,
define a listener for the postUpdate
Doctrine event:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
// src/EventListener/UserChangedNotifier.php
namespace App\EventListener;
use App\Entity\User;
use Doctrine\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs;
class UserChangedNotifier
{
// the entity listener methods receive two arguments:
// the entity instance and the lifecycle event
public function postUpdate(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event): void
{
// ... do something to notify the changes
}
}
The next step is to enable the Doctrine listener in the Symfony application by
creating a new service for it and tagging it
with the doctrine.orm.entity_listener
tag:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
# config/services.yaml
services:
# ...
App\EventListener\UserChangedNotifier:
tags:
-
# these are the options required to define the entity listener
name: 'doctrine.orm.entity_listener'
event: 'postUpdate'
entity: 'App\Entity\User'
# these are other options that you may define if needed
# set the 'lazy' option to TRUE to only instantiate listeners when they are used
# lazy: true
# set the 'entity_manager' option if the listener is not associated to the default manager
# entity_manager: 'custom'
# by default, Symfony looks for a method called after the event (e.g. postUpdate())
# if it doesn't exist, it tries to execute the '__invoke()' method, but you can
# configure a custom method name with the 'method' option
# method: 'checkUserChanges'
1 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
<!-- config/services.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xmlns:doctrine="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/doctrine">
<services>
<!-- ... -->
<service id="App\EventListener\UserChangedNotifier">
<!--
* These are the options required to define the entity listener:
* * name
* * event
* * entity
*
* These are other options that you may define if needed:
* * lazy: if TRUE, listeners are only instantiated when they are used
* * entity_manager: define it if the listener is not associated to the default manager
* * method: by default, Symfony looks for a method called after the event (e.g. postUpdate())
* if it doesn't exist, it tries to execute the '__invoke()' method, but
* you can configure a custom method name with the 'method' option
-->
<tag name="doctrine.orm.entity_listener"
event="postUpdate"
entity="App\Entity\User"
lazy="true"
entity_manager="custom"
method="checkUserChanges"/>
</service>
</services>
</container>
1 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
// config/services.php
namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;
use App\Entity\User;
use App\EventListener\UserChangedNotifier;
return static function (ContainerConfigurator $container) {
$services = $container->services();
$services->set(UserChangedNotifier::class)
->tag('doctrine.orm.entity_listener', [
// These are the options required to define the entity listener:
'event' => 'postUpdate',
'entity' => User::class,
// These are other options that you may define if needed:
// set the 'lazy' option to TRUE to only instantiate listeners when they are used
// 'lazy' => true,
// set the 'entity_manager' option if the listener is not associated to the default manager
// 'entity_manager' => 'custom',
// by default, Symfony looks for a method called after the event (e.g. postUpdate())
// if it doesn't exist, it tries to execute the '__invoke()' method, but you can
// configure a custom method name with the 'method' option
// 'method' => 'checkUserChanges',
])
;
};
Doctrine Lifecycle Subscribers
Lifecycle subscribers are defined as PHP classes that implement the
Doctrine\Common\EventSubscriber
interface and which listen to one or more
Doctrine events on all the application entities. For example, suppose that you
want to log all the database activity. To do so, define a subscriber for the
postPersist
, postRemove
and postUpdate
Doctrine events:
1 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 52
// src/EventListener/DatabaseActivitySubscriber.php
namespace App\EventListener;
use App\Entity\Product;
use Doctrine\Bundle\DoctrineBundle\EventSubscriber\EventSubscriberInterface;
use Doctrine\ORM\Events;
use Doctrine\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs;
class DatabaseActivitySubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{
// this method can only return the event names; you cannot define a
// custom method name to execute when each event triggers
public function getSubscribedEvents(): array
{
return [
Events::postPersist,
Events::postRemove,
Events::postUpdate,
];
}
// callback methods must be called exactly like the events they listen to;
// they receive an argument of type LifecycleEventArgs, which gives you access
// to both the entity object of the event and the entity manager itself
public function postPersist(LifecycleEventArgs $args): void
{
$this->logActivity('persist', $args);
}
public function postRemove(LifecycleEventArgs $args): void
{
$this->logActivity('remove', $args);
}
public function postUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args): void
{
$this->logActivity('update', $args);
}
private function logActivity(string $action, LifecycleEventArgs $args): void
{
$entity = $args->getObject();
// if this subscriber only applies to certain entity types,
// add some code to check the entity type as early as possible
if (!$entity instanceof Product) {
return;
}
// ... get the entity information and log it somehow
}
}
If you're using the default services.yaml configuration
and DoctrineBundle 2.1 (released May 25, 2020) or newer, this example will already
work! Otherwise, create a service for this
subscriber and tag it with doctrine.event_subscriber
.
If you need to configure some option of the subscriber (e.g. its priority or Doctrine connection to use) you must do that in the manual service configuration:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
# config/services.yaml
services:
# ...
App\EventListener\DatabaseActivitySubscriber:
tags:
- name: 'doctrine.event_subscriber'
# subscribers can define their priority in case multiple subscribers or listeners are associated
# to the same event (default priority = 0; higher numbers = listener is run earlier)
priority: 500
# you can also restrict listeners to a specific Doctrine connection
connection: 'default'
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
<!-- config/services.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
xmlns:doctrine="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/doctrine">
<services>
<!-- ... -->
<!--
* 'priority': used when multiple subscribers or listeners are associated to the same event
* (default priority = 0; higher numbers = listener is run earlier)
* 'connection': restricts the listener to a specific Doctrine connection
-->
<service id="App\EventListener\DatabaseActivitySubscriber">
<tag name="doctrine.event_subscriber" priority="500" connection="default"/>
</service>
</services>
</container>
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
// config/services.php
namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;
use App\EventListener\DatabaseActivitySubscriber;
return static function (ContainerConfigurator $container) {
$services = $container->services();
$services->set(DatabaseActivitySubscriber::class)
->tag('doctrine.event_subscriber'[
// subscribers can define their priority in case multiple subscribers or listeners are associated
// to the same event (default priority = 0; higher numbers = listener is run earlier)
'priority' => 500,
// you can also restrict listeners to a specific Doctrine connection
'connection' => 'default',
])
;
};
5.3
Subscriber priority was introduced in Symfony 5.3.
Tip
Symfony loads (and instantiates) Doctrine subscribers whenever the application executes; whereas Doctrine listeners are only loaded when the related event is actually fired, making them more performant.