Symfony 3: how to manipulate entities dynamically?

Question

I've a Car -entity and it's insurance fees (not part of the Entity!), which I receive by an external provider. At the moment I'm looping both against each others:

Current: (pseudocode)

foreach ($insuranceFeesArr as $insuranceFeesObj):        
    if ($insuranceFeesObj.carId == $car.id):
        echo 'Fees: ' . $insuranceFeesObj.USD; // "Fees: 75.00 USD"
    endif;
endforeach;

I'd like to prepare/merge the data anywhere (repository? service?) to be able to access the insurance fees by the Car :

Desired: (twig)

{{ car.insuranceFees.USD }} // Fees: 75.00 USD

What's the best or a good practice?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I assume you manage your entities with doctrine.

You should create a repository service for that purpose.

use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;

class CarRepository extends EntityRepository
{
    $protected $insuranceFeeApi;

    public function setInsuranceFeeApi($insuranceFeeApi) 
    { 
        $this->insuranceFeeApi = $insuranceFeeApi; 
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * overwrite doctrine repository functions you will use to enrich your car entities with insurancefee objects
     */
    public function fetchAll()
    {
        $insuranceFees = $this->insuranceFeeApi->getInsuranceFees(); //pseudocode
        $cars = parent::fetchAll();
        //enrich your car instances here

        return $cars;
    }
}

Set this repository as the repository to be used for your car entity:

/**
 * @Entity(repositoryClass="CarRepository")
 */
class Car
{

// ...
}

Declare this repository as a service:

insurance_fee_api:
  class: My\InsuranceFee\Api

car_repository:
  class: Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository
  factory_service: doctrine.orm.default_entity_manager
  factory_method: getRepository
  arguments:
    - My\Entity\Car
  calls:
    - ['setInsuranceFeeApi', ['@insurance_fee_api']]

Use this repository within your controller to fetch your car instances:

$carRepository = $this->get('car_repository');
$cars = $carRepository->fetchAll(); // cars with insurancefees

You may now pass these car instances to your view templates and access the insurancefees as desired.

Drawbacks with this method:

• You may not use constructor-injection with the dependencies of CarRepository

• You may not get the repository using $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository() . Instead, you have to get the repository via container