Schema Files

You can alternatively manage your models with YAML schema files and generate PHP classes from them. First lets generate a YAML schema file from the existing models we already have to make things easier. Change test.php to have the following code inside:

// test.php

// ...

Doctrine_Core::generateYamlFromModels('schema.yml', 'models');

Execute the test.php script:

$ php test.php

Now you should see a file named schema.yml created in the root of the doctrine_test directory. It should look like the following:

---
User:
  tableName: user
  columns:
    id:
      type: integer(8)
      primary: true
      autoincrement: true
    is_active:
      type: integer(1)
      default: '1'
    is_super_admin:
      type: integer(1)
      default: '0'
    created_at:
      type: timestamp(25)
      notnull: true
    updated_at:
      type: timestamp(25)
      notnull: true
    first_name: string(255)
    last_name: string(255)
    username: string(255)
    password: string(255)
    type: string(255)

So now that we have a valid YAML schema file, we can now maintain our schema from here and generate the PHP classes from here. Lets create a new php script called generate.php. This script will re-generate everything and make sure the database is reinstantiated each time the script is called:

// generate.php

require_once('bootstrap.php');

Doctrine_Core::dropDatabases();
Doctrine_Core::createDatabases();
Doctrine_Core::generateModelsFromYaml('schema.yml', 'models');
Doctrine_Core::createTablesFromModels('models');

Now you can alter your schema.yml and re-generate your models by running the following command from your terminal:

$ php generate.php

Now that we have our YAML schema file setup and we can re-generate our models from the schema files lets cleanup the file a little and take advantage of some of the power of Doctrine:

---
User:
  actAs: [Timestampable]
  columns:
    is_active:
      type: integer(1)
      default: '1'
    is_super_admin:
      type: integer(1)
      default: '0'
    first_name: string(255)
    last_name: string(255)
    username: string(255)
    password: string(255)
    type: string(255)

Notice some of the changes we made:
1.) Removed the explicit tableName definition as it will default to user.
2.) Attached the Timestampable behavior.
3.) Removed id column as it is automatically added if no primary key is defined.
4.) Removed updated_at and created_at columns as they can be handled automatically by the Timestampable behavior.
Now look how much cleaner the YAML is and is because we take advantage of defaults and utilize core behaviors it is much less work we have to do ourselves.

Now re-generate your models from the YAML schema file:

$ php generate.php

You can learn more about YAML Schema Files in its dedicated chapter.