Installation¶

In Symfony 4 or higher applications that use Symfony Flex, open a command console, enter your project directory and run the following command:

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$ composer require --dev orm-fixtures

That's all! You can skip to the next section and start writing fixtures.

In Symfony 3 applications (or when not using Symfony Flex), run this other command instead:

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$ composer require --dev doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle

You will also need to enable the bundle. In Symfony 3 and earlier applications, update the AppKernel class:

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// app/AppKernel.php

// ...
// registerBundles()
if (in_array($this->getEnvironment(), ['dev', 'test'], true)) {
    // ...
    $bundles[] = new Doctrine\Bundle\FixturesBundle\DoctrineFixturesBundle();
}

In Symfony 4 applications, update the config/bundles.php file:

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// config/bundles.php
return [
    // ...
    Doctrine\Bundle\FixturesBundle\DoctrineFixturesBundle::class => ['dev' => true, 'test' => true],
];

Writing Fixtures¶

Data fixtures are PHP classes where you create objects and persist them to the database.

Imagine that you want to add some Product objects to your database. No problem! Create a fixtures class and start adding products:

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// src/DataFixtures/AppFixtures.php
namespace App\DataFixtures;

use App\Entity\Product;
use Doctrine\Bundle\FixturesBundle\Fixture;
use Doctrine\Common\Persistence\ObjectManager;

class AppFixtures extends Fixture
{
    public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
    {
        // create 20 products! Bam!
        for ($i = 0; $i < 20; $i++) {
            $product = new Product();
            $product->setName('product '.$i);
            $product->setPrice(mt_rand(10, 100));
            $manager->persist($product);
        }

        $manager->flush();
    }
}

Loading Fixtures¶

Once your fixtures have been written, load them by executing this command:

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# when using the ORM
$ php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load

This command looks for all services tagged with doctrine.fixture.orm. If you're using the default service configuration, any class that implements ORMFixtureInterface (for example, those extending from Fixture) will automatically be registered with this tag.

To see other options for the command, run:

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$ php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load --help

Accessing Services from the Fixtures¶

In some cases you may need to access your application's services inside a fixtures class. No problem! Your fixtures class is a service, so you can use normal dependency injection:

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// src/DataFixtures/AppFixtures.php
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Encoder\UserPasswordEncoderInterface;

// ...
private $encoder;

public function __construct(UserPasswordEncoderInterface $encoder)
{
    $this->encoder = $encoder;
}

// ...
public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
{
    $user = new User();
    $user->setUsername('admin');

    $password = $this->encoder->encodePassword($user, 'pass_1234');
    $user->setPassword($password);

    $manager->persist($user);
    $manager->flush();
}

You can also access the container via the $this->container property. But remember that not all services (i.e. private services) can be accessed directly via the container.

Splitting Fixtures into Separate Files¶

In most applications, creating all your fixtures in just one class is fine. This class may end up being a bit long, but it's worth it because having one file helps keeping things simple.

If you do decide to split your fixtures into separate files, Symfony helps you solve the two most common issues: sharing objects between fixtures and loading the fixtures in order.

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// src/DataFixtures/UserFixtures.php
// ...
class UserFixtures extends Fixture
{
    public const ADMIN_USER_REFERENCE = 'admin-user';

    public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
    {
        $userAdmin = new User('admin', 'pass_1234');
        $manager->persist($userAdmin);
        $manager->flush();

        // other fixtures can get this object using the UserFixtures::ADMIN_USER_REFERENCE constant
        $this->addReference(self::ADMIN_USER_REFERENCE, $userAdmin);
    }
}

// src/DataFixtures/GroupFixtures.php
// ...
class GroupFixtures extends Fixture
{
    public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
    {
        $userGroup = new Group('administrators');
        // this reference returns the User object created in UserFixtures
        $userGroup->addUser($this->getReference(UserFixtures::ADMIN_USER_REFERENCE));

        $manager->persist($userGroup);
        $manager->flush();
    }
}

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// src/DataFixtures/UserFixtures.php
namespace App\DataFixtures;

// ...
class UserFixtures extends Fixture
{
    public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

// src/DataFixtures/GroupFixtures.php
namespace App\DataFixtures;
// ...
use App\DataFixtures\UserFixtures;
use Doctrine\Common\DataFixtures\DependentFixtureInterface;

class GroupFixtures extends Fixture implements DependentFixtureInterface
{
    public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
    {
        // ...
    }

    public function getDependencies()
    {
        return array(
            UserFixtures::class,
        );
    }
}

Fixture Groups: Only Executing Some Fixtures¶

By default, all of your fixture classes are executed. If you only want to execute some of your fixture classes, you can organize them into groups.

The simplest way to organize a fixture class into a group is to make your fixture implement FixtureGroupInterface:

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// src/DataFixtures/UserFixtures.php

+ use Doctrine\Bundle\FixturesBundle\FixtureGroupInterface;

- class UserFixtures extends Fixture
+ class UserFixtures extends Fixture implements FixtureGroupInterface
{
    // ...

+     public static function getGroups(): array
+     {
+         return ['group1', 'group2'];
+     }
}

To execute all of your fixtures for a given group, pass the --group option:

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$ php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load --group=group1

# or to execute multiple groups
$ php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load --group=group1 --group=group2

Alternatively, instead of implementing the FixtureGroupInterface, you can also tag your service with doctrine.fixture.orm and add an extra group option set to a group your fixture should belong to.

Regardless of groups defined in the fixture or the service definition, the fixture loader always adds the short name of the class as a separate group so you can load a single fixture at a time. In the example above, you can load the fixture using the UserFixtures group:

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$ php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load --group=UserFixtures