What is the best practice for repository? - doctrine-orm

Question

In my repositories, I have methods with too many arguments (for use in where) :
Example :
class ProchaineOperationRepository extends EntityRepository
{
public function getProchaineOperation(
$id = null, // Search by ID
\DateTime $dateMax = null, // Search by DateMax
\DateTime $dateMin = null, // Search by DateMin
$title = null // Search by title
)
In my controllers, I have differents action ... for get with ID, for get with ID and DateMin, for get ID and Title, ...
My method is too illegible because too many arguments ... and it would be difficult to create many methods because they are almost identical ...
What is the best practice ?

Answer 1

You have two main concerns in your question
You have too many arguments in your repository method which will be used in 'where' condition of the eventual query. You want to organize them in a better way
The repository method should be callable from the controller in a meaningful way because of possible complexity of arguments passed
I suggest you to write a Repository method like:
namespace AcmeBundle\Repository;
/**
* ProchaineOperationRepository
*
*/
class ProchaineOperationRepository extends \Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository
{
public function search($filters, $sortBy = "id", $orderBy = "DESC")
{
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder("po");
foreach ($filters as $key => $value){
$qb->andWhere("po.$key='$value'");
}
$qb->addOrderBy("po.$sortBy", $orderBy);
return $qb->getQuery()->getArrayResult();
}
}
The $filters variable here is an array which is supposed to hold the filters you are going to use in 'where' condition. $sortBy and $orderBy should also be useful to get the result in properly sequenced way
Now, you can call the repository method from your controller like:
class ProchaineOperationController extends Controller
{
/**
* #Route("/getById/{id}")
*/
public function getByIdAction($id)
{
$filters = ['id' => $id];
$result = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository("AcmeBundle:ProchaineOperation")->search($filters);
//process $result
}
/**
* #Route("/getByTitle/{title}")
*/
public function getByTitleAction($title)
{
$filters = ['title' => $title];
$sortBy = 'title';
$result = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository("AcmeBundle:ProchaineOperation")->search($filters, $sortBy);
//process $result
}
/**
* #Route("/getByIdAndDateMin/{id}/{dateMin}")
*/
public function getByIdAndDateMinAction($id, $dateMin)
{
$filters = ['id' => $id, 'dateMin' => $dateMin];
$sortBy = "dateMin";
$orderBy = "ASC";
$result = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository("AcmeBundle:ProchaineOperation")->search($filters, $sortBy, $orderBy);
//process $result
}
}
Note that you are calling the same repository method for all controller actions with minor changes according to your parameters. Also note that $sortBy and $orderBy are optionally passed.
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

If your objective is only to query with an AND operator between each properties, the best way could be to use the method proposed by doctrine for that : findBy() cf : this part of the doc
for instance :
$results = $this
->getDoctrine()
->getRepository('AppBundle:ProchaineOperation')
->findBy(array('dateMax' => $myDate, 'title' => 'Hello world');
EDIT : after comment
Then use the same way as Doctrine do : Pass only an array with id, dateMax... as keys if these are set. This should be solve the method signature problem which gives you so much trouble. :)