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Events

Doctrine ORM features a lightweight event system that is part of the Common package. Doctrine uses it to dispatch system events, mainly lifecycle events. You can also use it for your own custom events.

The Event System

The event system is controlled by the EventManager. It is the central point of Doctrine's event listener system. Listeners are registered on the manager and events are dispatched through the manager.

1<?php $evm = new EventManager();
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Now we can add some event listeners to the $evm. Let's create a TestEvent class to play around with.

1<?php class TestEvent { const preFoo = 'preFoo'; const postFoo = 'postFoo'; private $_evm; public $preFooInvoked = false; public $postFooInvoked = false; public function __construct($evm) { $evm->addEventListener(array(self::preFoo, self::postFoo), $this); } public function preFoo(EventArgs $e) { $this->preFooInvoked = true; } public function postFoo(EventArgs $e) { $this->postFooInvoked = true; } } // Create a new instance $test = new TestEvent($evm);
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Events can be dispatched by using the dispatchEvent() method.

1<?php $evm->dispatchEvent(TestEvent::preFoo); $evm->dispatchEvent(TestEvent::postFoo);
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You can easily remove a listener with the removeEventListener() method.

1<?php $evm->removeEventListener(array(self::preFoo, self::postFoo), $this);
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The Doctrine ORM event system also has a simple concept of event subscribers. We can define a simple TestEventSubscriber class which implements the \Doctrine\Common\EventSubscriber interface and implements a getSubscribedEvents() method which returns an array of events it should be subscribed to.

1<?php use Doctrine\Common\EventSubscriber; class TestEventSubscriber implements EventSubscriber { public $preFooInvoked = false; public function preFoo() { $this->preFooInvoked = true; } public function getSubscribedEvents() { return array(TestEvent::preFoo); } } $eventSubscriber = new TestEventSubscriber(); $evm->addEventSubscriber($eventSubscriber);
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The array to return in the getSubscribedEvents method is a simple array with the values being the event names. The subscriber must have a method that is named exactly like the event.

Now when you dispatch an event, any event subscribers will be notified for that event.

1<?php $evm->dispatchEvent(TestEvent::preFoo);
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Now you can test the $eventSubscriber instance to see if the preFoo() method was invoked.

1<?php if ($eventSubscriber->preFooInvoked) { echo 'pre foo invoked!'; }
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Registering Event Handlers

There are two ways to set up an event handler:

  • For all events you can create a Lifecycle Event Listener or Subscriber class and register

it by calling $eventManager->addEventListener() or eventManager->addEventSubscriber(), see Listening and subscribing to Lifecycle Events For some events (see table below), you can create a Lifecycle Callback* method in the entity, see Lifecycle Callbacks.

Events Overview

Event Dispatched by Lifecycle Callback Passed Argument
preRemove $em->remove() Yes LifecycleEventArgs
postRemove $em->flush() Yes LifecycleEventArgs
prePersist $em->persist() on initial persist Yes LifecycleEventArgs
postPersist $em->flush() Yes LifecycleEventArgs
preUpdate $em->flush() Yes PreUpdateEventArgs
postUpdate $em->flush() Yes LifecycleEventArgs
postLoad Loading from database Yes LifecycleEventArgs
loadClassMetadata Loading of mapping metadata No LoadClassMetadataEventArgs
onClassMetadataNotFound MappingException No OnClassMetadataNotFoundEventArgs
preFlush $em->flush() Yes PreFlushEventArgs
onFlush $em->flush() No OnFlushEventArgs
postFlush $em->flush() No PostFlushEventArgs
onClear $em->clear() No OnClearEventArgs

Naming convention

Events being used with the Doctrine ORM EventManager are best named with camelcase and the value of the corresponding constant should be the name of the constant itself, even with spelling. This has several reasons:

  • It is easy to read.
  • Simplicity.
  • Each method within an EventSubscriber is named after the corresponding constant's value. If the constant's name and value differ it contradicts the intention of using the constant and makes your code harder to maintain.

An example for a correct notation can be found in the example TestEvent above.

Lifecycle Callbacks

Lifecycle Callbacks are defined on an entity class. They allow you to trigger callbacks whenever an instance of that entity class experiences a relevant lifecycle event. More than one callback can be defined for each lifecycle event. Lifecycle Callbacks are best used for simple operations specific to a particular entity class's lifecycle.

Lifecycle Callbacks are not supported for Embeddables.

1<?php use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Types; use Doctrine\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs; #[Entity] #[HasLifecycleCallbacks] class User { // ... #[Column(type: Types::STRING, length: 255)] public $value; #[PrePersist] public function doStuffOnPrePersist(LifecycleEventArgs $eventArgs) { $this->createdAt = date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); } #[PrePersist] public function doOtherStuffOnPrePersist() { $this->value = 'changed from prePersist callback!'; } #[PreUpdate] public function doStuffOnPreUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $eventArgs) { $this->value = 'changed from preUpdate callback!'; } }
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Lifecycle Callbacks Event Argument

The triggered event is also given to the lifecycle-callback.

With the additional argument you have access to the EntityManager and UnitOfWork APIs inside these callback methods.

1<?php // ... class User { public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $event) { if ($event->hasChangedField('username')) { // Do something when the username is changed. } } }
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Listening and subscribing to Lifecycle Events

Lifecycle event listeners are much more powerful than the simple lifecycle callbacks that are defined on the entity classes. They sit at a level above the entities and allow you to implement re-usable behaviors across different entity classes.

Note that they require much more detailed knowledge about the inner workings of the EntityManager and UnitOfWork classes. Please read the Implementing Event Listeners section carefully if you are trying to write your own listener.

For event subscribers, there are no surprises. They declare the lifecycle events in their getSubscribedEvents method and provide public methods that expect the relevant arguments.

A lifecycle event listener looks like the following:

1<?php use Doctrine\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs; class MyEventListener { public function preUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args) { $entity = $args->getObject(); $entityManager = $args->getObjectManager(); // perhaps you only want to act on some "Product" entity if ($entity instanceof Product) { // do something with the Product } } }
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A lifecycle event subscriber may look like this:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Events; use Doctrine\EventSubscriber; use Doctrine\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs; class MyEventSubscriber implements EventSubscriber { public function getSubscribedEvents() { return array( Events::postUpdate, ); } public function postUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args) { $entity = $args->getObject(); $entityManager = $args->getObjectManager(); // perhaps you only want to act on some "Product" entity if ($entity instanceof Product) { // do something with the Product } }
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Lifecycle events are triggered for all entities. It is the responsibility of the listeners and subscribers to check if the entity is of a type it wants to handle.

To register an event listener or subscriber, you have to hook it into the EventManager that is passed to the EntityManager factory:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Events; $eventManager = new EventManager(); $eventManager->addEventListener([Events::preUpdate], new MyEventListener()); $eventManager->addEventSubscriber(new MyEventSubscriber()); $entityManager = EntityManager::create($dbOpts, $config, $eventManager);
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You can also retrieve the event manager instance after the EntityManager was created:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Events; $entityManager->getEventManager()->addEventListener([Events::preUpdate], new MyEventListener()); $entityManager->getEventManager()->addEventSubscriber(new MyEventSubscriber());
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Implementing Event Listeners

This section explains what is and what is not allowed during specific lifecycle events of the UnitOfWork class. Although you get passed the EntityManager instance in all of these events, you have to follow these restrictions very carefully since operations in the wrong event may produce lots of different errors, such as inconsistent data and lost updates/persists/removes.

For the described events that are also lifecycle callback events the restrictions apply as well, with the additional restriction that (prior to version 2.4) you do not have access to the EntityManager or UnitOfWork APIs inside these events.

prePersist

There are two ways for the prePersist event to be triggered:

  • One is obviously when you call EntityManager::persist(). The

event is also called for all cascaded associations. - The other is inside the flush() method when changes to associations are computed and this association is marked as cascade: persist. Any new entity found during this operation is also persisted and prePersist called on it. This is called persistence by reachability.

In both cases you get passed a LifecycleEventArgs instance which has access to the entity and the entity manager.

This event is only triggered on initial persist of an entity (i.e. it does not trigger on future updates).

The following restrictions apply to prePersist:

  • If you are using a PrePersist Identity Generator such as sequences the ID value will NOT be available within any PrePersist events.
  • Doctrine will not recognize changes made to relations in a prePersist event. This includes modifications to collections such as additions, removals or replacement.

preRemove

The preRemove event is called on every entity immediately when it is passed to the EntityManager::remove() method. It is cascaded for all associations that are marked as cascade: remove

It is not called for a DQL DELETE statement.

There are no restrictions to what methods can be called inside the preRemove event, except when the remove method itself was called during a flush operation.

preFlush

preFlush is called inside EntityManager::flush() before anything else. EntityManager::flush() must not be called inside its listeners, since it would fire the preFlush event again, which would result in an infinite loop.

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreFlushEventArgs; class PreFlushExampleListener { public function preFlush(PreFlushEventArgs $args) { // ... } }
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onFlush

onFlush is a very powerful event. It is called inside EntityManager::flush() after the changes to all the managed entities and their associations have been computed. This means, the onFlush event has access to the sets of:

  • Entities scheduled for insert
  • Entities scheduled for update
  • Entities scheduled for removal
  • Collections scheduled for update
  • Collections scheduled for removal

To make use of the onFlush event you have to be familiar with the internal UnitOfWork API, which grants you access to the previously mentioned sets. See this example:

1<?php class FlushExampleListener { public function onFlush(OnFlushEventArgs $eventArgs) { $em = $eventArgs->getEntityManager(); $uow = $em->getUnitOfWork(); foreach ($uow->getScheduledEntityInsertions() as $entity) { } foreach ($uow->getScheduledEntityUpdates() as $entity) { } foreach ($uow->getScheduledEntityDeletions() as $entity) { } foreach ($uow->getScheduledCollectionDeletions() as $col) { } foreach ($uow->getScheduledCollectionUpdates() as $col) { } } }
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The following restrictions apply to the onFlush event:

  • If you create and persist a new entity in onFlush, then calling EntityManager::persist() is not enough. You have to execute an additional call to $unitOfWork->computeChangeSet($classMetadata, $entity).
  • Changing primitive fields or associations requires you to explicitly trigger a re-computation of the changeset of the affected entity. This can be done by calling $unitOfWork->recomputeSingleEntityChangeSet($classMetadata, $entity).

postFlush

postFlush is called at the end of EntityManager::flush(). EntityManager::flush() can NOT be called safely inside its listeners. This event is not a lifecycle callback.

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PostFlushEventArgs; class PostFlushExampleListener { public function postFlush(PostFlushEventArgs $args) { // ... } }
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preUpdate

PreUpdate is called inside the EntityManager::flush() method, right before an SQL UPDATE statement. This event is not triggered when the computed changeset is empty, nor for a DQL UPDATE statement.

Changes to associations of the updated entity are never allowed in this event, since Doctrine cannot guarantee to correctly handle referential integrity at this point of the flush operation. This event has a powerful feature however, it is executed with a PreUpdateEventArgs instance, which contains a reference to the computed change-set of this entity.

This means you have access to all the fields that have changed for this entity with their old and new value. The following methods are available on the PreUpdateEventArgs:

  • getEntity() to get access to the actual entity.
  • getEntityChangeSet() to get a copy of the changeset array. Changes to this returned array do not affect updating.
  • hasChangedField($fieldName) to check if the given field name of the current entity changed.
  • getOldValue($fieldName) and getNewValue($fieldName) to access the values of a field.
  • setNewValue($fieldName, $value) to change the value of a field to be updated.

A simple example for this event looks like:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreUpdateEventArgs; class NeverAliceOnlyBobListener { public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $eventArgs) { if ($eventArgs->getEntity() instanceof User) { if ($eventArgs->hasChangedField('name') && $eventArgs->getNewValue('name') == 'Alice') { $eventArgs->setNewValue('name', 'Bob'); // The following will only work if `status` is already present in the computed changeset. // Otherwise it will throw an InvalidArgumentException: $eventArgs->setNewValue('status', 'active'); } } } }
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You could also use this listener to implement validation of all the fields that have changed. This is more efficient than using a lifecycle callback when there are expensive validations to call:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreUpdateEventArgs; class ValidCreditCardListener { public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $eventArgs) { if ($eventArgs->getEntity() instanceof Account) { if ($eventArgs->hasChangedField('creditCard')) { $this->validateCreditCard($eventArgs->getNewValue('creditCard')); } } } private function validateCreditCard($no) { // throw an exception to interrupt flush event. Transaction will be rolled back. } }
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Restrictions for this event:

  • Changes to associations of the passed entities are not recognized by the flush operation anymore.
  • Changes to fields of the passed entities are not recognized by the flush operation anymore, use the computed change-set passed to the event to modify primitive field values, e.g. use $eventArgs->setNewValue($field, $value); as in the Alice to Bob example above.
  • Any calls to EntityManager::persist() or EntityManager::remove(), even in combination with the UnitOfWork API are strongly discouraged and don't work as expected outside the flush operation.

postUpdate, postRemove, postPersist

These three post* events are called inside EntityManager::flush(). Changes in here are not relevant to the persistence in the database, but you can use these events to alter non-persistable items, like non-mapped fields, logging or even associated classes that are not directly mapped by Doctrine.

  • The postUpdate event occurs after the database update operations to entity data. It is not called for a DQL UPDATE statement.
  • The postPersist event occurs for an entity after the entity has been made persistent. It will be invoked after the database insert operations. Generated primary key values are available in the postPersist event.
  • The postRemove event occurs for an entity after the entity has been deleted. It will be invoked after the database delete operations. It is not called for a DQL DELETE statement.

The postRemove event or any events triggered after an entity removal can receive an uninitializable proxy in case you have configured an entity to cascade remove relations. In this case, you should load yourself the proxy in the associated pre* event.

postLoad

The postLoad event occurs after the entity has been loaded into the current EntityManager from the database or after refresh() has been applied to it.

When using Doctrine\ORM\AbstractQuery::toIterable(), postLoad events will be executed immediately after objects are being hydrated, and therefore associations are not guaranteed to be initialized. It is not safe to combine usage of Doctrine\ORM\AbstractQuery::toIterable() and postLoad event handlers.

onClear

The onClear event occurs when the EntityManager::clear() operation is invoked, after all references to entities have been removed from the unit of work. This event is not a lifecycle callback.

Entity listeners

An entity listener is a lifecycle listener class used for an entity.

  • The entity listener's mapping may be applied to an entity class or mapped superclass.
  • An entity listener is defined by mapping the entity class with the corresponding mapping.
1<?php namespace MyProject\Entity; use App\EventListener\UserListener; #[Entity] #[EntityListeners([UserListener::class])] class User { // .... }
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Entity listeners class

An Entity Listener could be any class, by default it should be a class with a no-arg constructor.

  • Different from Implementing Event Listeners an Entity Listener is invoked just to the specified entity
  • An entity listener method receives two arguments, the entity instance and the lifecycle event.
  • The callback method can be defined by naming convention or specifying a method mapping.
  • When a listener mapping is not given the parser will use the naming convention to look for a matching method, e.g. it will look for a public preUpdate() method if you are listening to the preUpdate event.
  • When a listener mapping is given the parser will not look for any methods using the naming convention.
1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreUpdateEventArgs; class UserListener { public function preUpdate(User $user, PreUpdateEventArgs $event) { // Do something on pre update. } }
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To define a specific event listener method (one that does not follow the naming convention) you need to map the listener method using the event type mapping:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\LifecycleEventArgs; use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreUpdateEventArgs; use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreFlushEventArgs; class UserListener { /** @PrePersist */ public function prePersistHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PostPersist */ public function postPersistHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PreUpdate */ public function preUpdateHandler(User $user, PreUpdateEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PostUpdate */ public function postUpdateHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PostRemove */ public function postRemoveHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PreRemove */ public function preRemoveHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PreFlush */ public function preFlushHandler(User $user, PreFlushEventArgs $event) { // ... } /** @PostLoad */ public function postLoadHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ... } }
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The order of execution of multiple methods for the same event (e.g. multiple @PrePersist) is not guaranteed.

Entity listeners resolver

Doctrine invokes the listener resolver to get the listener instance.

  • A resolver allows you register a specific entity listener instance.
  • You can also implement your own resolver by extending Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\DefaultEntityListenerResolver or implementing Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\EntityListenerResolver

Specifying an entity listener instance :

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreUpdateEventArgs; // User.php /** @Entity @EntityListeners({"UserListener"}) */ class User { // .... } // UserListener.php class UserListener { public function __construct(MyService $service) { $this->service = $service; } public function preUpdate(User $user, PreUpdateEventArgs $event) { $this->service->doSomething($user); } } // register a entity listener. $listener = $container->get('user_listener'); $em->getConfiguration()->getEntityListenerResolver()->register($listener);
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Implementing your own resolver:

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\DefaultEntityListenerResolver; class MyEntityListenerResolver extends DefaultEntityListenerResolver { public function __construct($container) { $this->container = $container; } public function resolve($className) { // resolve the service id by the given class name; $id = 'user_listener'; return $this->container->get($id); } } // Configure the listener resolver only before instantiating the EntityManager $configurations->setEntityListenerResolver(new MyEntityListenerResolver); EntityManager::create(.., $configurations, ..);
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Load ClassMetadata Event

loadClassMetadata - The loadClassMetadata event occurs after the mapping metadata for a class has been loaded from a mapping source (annotations/xml/yaml) in to a Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata instance. You can hook in to this process and manipulate the instance. This event is not a lifecycle callback.

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Event\LoadClassMetadataEventArgs; $test = new TestEventListener(); $evm = $em->getEventManager(); $evm->addEventListener(Doctrine\ORM\Events::loadClassMetadata, $test); class TestEventListener { public function loadClassMetadata(LoadClassMetadataEventArgs $eventArgs) { $classMetadata = $eventArgs->getClassMetadata(); $fieldMapping = array( 'fieldName' => 'about', 'type' => 'string', 'length' => 255 ); $classMetadata->mapField($fieldMapping); } }
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If not class metadata can be found, an onClassMetadataNotFound event is dispatched. Manipulating the given event args instance allows providing fallback metadata even when no actual metadata exists or could be found. This event is not a lifecycle callback.

SchemaTool Events

It is possible to access the schema metadata during schema changes that are happening in Doctrine\ORM\Tools\SchemaTool. There are two different events where you can hook in.

postGenerateSchemaTable

This event is fired for each Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Table instance, after one was created and built up with the current class metadata of an entity. It is possible to access to the current state of Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema, the current table schema instance and class metadata.

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\ToolEvents; use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Event\GenerateSchemaTableEventArgs; $test = new TestEventListener(); $evm = $em->getEventManager(); $evm->addEventListener(ToolEvents::postGenerateSchemaTable, $test); class TestEventListener { public function postGenerateSchemaTable(GenerateSchemaTableEventArgs $eventArgs) { $classMetadata = $eventArgs->getClassMetadata(); $schema = $eventArgs->getSchema(); $table = $eventArgs->getClassTable(); } }
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postGenerateSchema

This event is fired after the schema instance was successfully built and before SQL queries are generated from the schema information of Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema. It allows to access the full object representation of the database schema and the EntityManager.

1<?php use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\ToolEvents; use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Event\GenerateSchemaEventArgs; $test = new TestEventListener(); $evm = $em->getEventManager(); $evm->addEventListener(ToolEvents::postGenerateSchema, $test); class TestEventListener { public function postGenerateSchema(GenerateSchemaEventArgs $eventArgs) { $schema = $eventArgs->getSchema(); $em = $eventArgs->getEntityManager(); } }
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