marshal (verb): to arrange in proper order; set out in an orderly manner; arrange clearly: to marshal facts; to marshal one's arguments. -- dictionary.com
The Aura Marshal package is a data-object marshalling tool. It takes results from data sources and marshals those result sets into domain model objects of your own design, preserving data relationships along the way.
This package is compliant with PSR-0, PSR-1, and PSR-2. If you notice compliance oversights, please send a patch via pull request.
You can use any database access layer you like with Aura Marshal, such as ...
mysqlor the other PHP database function setsPDOAura SQLSolar_Sql_AdapterZend_Db_AdapterDoctrine2 DBAL
... or anything else. (In theory, you should be able to retrieve data from XML, CSV, Mongo, or anything else, and load it into Aura Marshal.)
With Aura Marshal, you use the data retrieval tools of your choice and write your own queries to retrieve data from a data source. You then load that result data into an entity type object, and it creates entity and collection objects for you based on a mapping scheme you define for it.
Aura Marshal makes it easy to avoid the N+1 problem when working with a domain model. It also uses an identity map (per type) to avoid retaining multiple copies of the same object.
It is important to remember that Aura Marshal, despite resembling an ORM in many ways, it not an ORM proper:
- it does not have a query-building facility
- it will not issue queries on its own
- it will not handle persistence for you
- it will not lazy-load results from a data source
- it will not read metadata or schemas from the datasource
Those things are outside the scope of the Aura Marshal package. Their absence does provide a great amount of flexibility for power users who write their own hand-tuned SQL and need a way to marshal their result sets into a domain model, especially in legacy codebases.
Aura Marshal works by using Type objects (which define the entity types in
the domain model). Each Type has a definition indicating its identity field,
how to build entities and collections, and the relationships to other Type
objects. The Type objects are accessed through a type Manager. You load
data into each Type in the Manager, then you retrieve entities and
collections from each Type.
For the rest of this narrative, we will assume the existence of the following SQL tables and columns in a naive multiuser blogging system:
authors: primary keyid; columnnameposts: primary keyid; columnsauthor_id,title, andbodysummaries: primary keyid; columnspost_idandread_sumcomments: primary keyid; columnspost_idandbodytags: primary keyid; columnnameposts_tags: primary keyid; columnspost_idandtag_id
(Note that the primary key and foreign key names are not important; they can be anything at all.)
Each author can have many posts.
Each post belongs to one author, has one summary, and can have many comments.
Posts and tags have a many-to-many relationship; that is, each post can have
many tags, and each tag can be applied to many posts. They map to each other
through posts_tags.
First, instantiate a Manager so we can define our Type objects and
relationships.
<?php
$manager = include '/path/to/Aura.Marshal/scripts/instance.php';
?>Alternatively, you can add Aura Marshal to your autoloader and instantiate it manually:
<?php
use Aura\Marshal\Manager;
use Aura\Marshal\Type\Builder as TypeBuilder;
use Aura\Marshal\Relation\Builder as RelationBuilder;
$manager = new \Aura\Marshal\Manager(
new TypeBuilder,
new RelationBuilder
);
?>Now we add definitions for each of the entity types in our domain model. These do not have to map directly to tables, but it is often the case that they do. Because Aura Marshal does not read schemas, we need to identify explicitly the primary key fields and the relationships (along with the relationship fields).
First, let's set the basic definitions for each type in the domain model. In
this case it turns out they all have the same primary key, so it's always
'id', but each could have a different primary key depending on your data
source.
<?php
$manager->setType('authors', ['identity_field' => 'id']);
$manager->setType('posts', ['identity_field' => 'id']);
$manager->setType('comments', ['identity_field' => 'id']);
$manager->setType('summaries', ['identity_field' => 'id']);
$manager->setType('tags', ['identity_field' => 'id']);
$manager->setType('posts_tags', ['identity_field' => 'id']);
?>Aura Marshal recognizes four kinds of relationships between types:
-
has_one: A one-to-one relationship where the native entity is the owner of one foreign entity. -
belongs_to: A many-to-one relationship where the native entity is owned by one foreign entity. (The foreign entity might be the owner of many other entities.) -
has_many: A one-to-many relationship where the native entity is the owner of many foreign entities. -
has_many_through: A many-to-many relationship where each native entity is linked to many foreign entities; at the same time, each foreign entity is linked to many native entities. This kind of relationship requires an association mapping type through which the native and foreign entities are linked to each other.
Let's add the simpler relationships to our Manager using the setRelation()
method. The first parameter is the name of the type we're setting the
relationship on, the second parameter is the field name the related data
should be saved in (as well as the implicit foreign type), and the third
parameter is an array of information about the relationship.
<?php
// each author has many posts
$manager->setRelation('authors', 'posts', [
// the kind of relationship
'relationship' => 'has_many',
// the authors field to match against
'native_field' => 'id',
// the posts field to match against
'foreign_field' => 'author_id',
]);
// each post belongs to one author
$manager->setRelation('posts', 'author', [
// the kind of relationship
'relationship' => 'belongs_to',
// normally the second param doubles as the foreign_type, but here
// we are using plural type names, so we need to specify the
// foreign_type explicitly
'foreign_type' => 'authors',
// the posts field to match against
'native_field' => 'author_id',
// the authors field to match against
'foreign_field' => 'id',
]);
// posts have one summary
$manager->setRelation('posts', 'summary', [
// the kind of relationship
'relationship' => 'has_one',
// the explicit foreign type
'foreign_type' => 'summaries',
// the posts field to match against
'native_field' => 'id',
// the summaries field to match against
'foreign_field' => 'post_id'
]);
// posts have many comments
$manager->setRelation('posts', 'comments', [
// the kind of relationship
'relationship' => 'has_many',
// the posts field to match against
'native_field' => 'id',
// the comments field to match against
'foreign_field' => 'post_id'
]);
?>Now let's set up the more complex many-to-many relationship between posts and tags.
<?php
// posts have many tags, as mapped through posts_tags
$manager->setRelation('posts', 'tags', [
// the kind of relationship
'relationship' => 'has_many_through',
// the association mapping type that links posts and tags
'through_type' => 'posts_tags',
// the posts field that should map to the "posts" side of the
// association mapping type
'native_field' => 'id',
// the "posts" side of the association mapping type
'through_native_field' => 'post_id',
// the "tags" side of the association mapping type
'through_foreign_field' => 'tag_id',
// the tags field that should map to the "tags" side of the
// association mapping type
'foreign_field' => 'id',
]);
// tags have many posts, as mapped through posts_tags
$manager->setRelation('tags', 'posts', [
// the kind of relationship
'relationship' => 'has_many_through',
// the association mapping type that links posts and tags
'through_type' => 'posts_tags',
// the tags field that should map to the "tags" side of the
// association mapping type
'native_field' => 'id',
// the "tags" side of the association mapping
'through_native_field' => 'tag_id',
// the "posts" side of the association mapping
'through_foreign_field' => 'post_id',
// the posts field that should map to the "posts" side of the
// association mapping
'foreign_field' => 'id',
]);
?>Now that we have defined the Type objects and their relationships to each
other in the Manager, we can load data into the Type objects. In the
following example, we load data using Aura SQL,
but any database access tool can be used.
<?php
/**
* @var Aura\Sql\AdapterFactory $adapter_factory
*/
// instantiate a database adapter for MySQL
$sql = $adapter_factory->newInstance(
'mysql',
[
'host' => '127.0.0.1',
'dbname' => 'database_name',
]
'user_name',
'pass_word'
);
// select the first 10 posts in the system
$result = $sql->fetchAll('SELECT * FROM posts LIMIT 10');
// load the results into the posts type object, and get back the
// identity (primary key) values for the loaded results.
$post_ids = $manager->posts->load($result);
// select and load all the comments on all the posts at once.
$result = $sql->fetchAll(
'SELECT * FROM comments WHERE post_id IN (:post_ids)',
[
'post_ids' => $post_ids,
]
);
$manager->comments->load($result);
?>Note that we are able to select all the comments for all the posts at once.
This means that instead of issuing 10 queries to get comments (one for each
blog post), we can issue a single query to get all comments at one time; the
Type objects will wire up the related collections for us automatically as
defined by the relationships. This helps us avoid the N+1 problem easily.
Let's continue:
<?php
// add the authors for the posts. first, we need to know
// the author_id values for all the posts so far ...
$author_ids = $manager->posts->getFieldValues('author_id');
// ... then we can query and load.
$result = $sql->fetchAll(
'SELECT * FROM authors WHERE id IN (:author_ids)',
[
'author_ids' => $author_ids,
]
);
$manager->authors->load($result);
// query and load post summaries.
$result = $sql->fetchAll(
'SELECT * FROM summaries WHERE post_id IN (:post_ids)',
[
'post_ids' => $post_ids,
]
);
$manager->summaries->load($result);
// query and load the association mapping type linking posts and tags
$result = $sql->fetchAll(
'SELECT * FROM posts_tags WHERE post_id IN (:post_ids)',
[
'post_ids' => $post_ids,
]
);
$manager->posts_tags->load($result);
// finally, query and load all tags regardless of posts
$result = $sql->fetchAll('SELECT * FROM tags');
$manager->tags->load($result);
?>Now that the domain model has been loaded with data, we can read out the entity objects, with related data wired up for us automatically.
<?php
// get a collection of the post IDs we just loaded
$posts = $manager->posts->getCollection($post_ids);
// loop through posts collection, getting a post entity each time
foreach ($posts as $post) {
// address the native and foreign fields
echo "The post titled {$post->title} "
. "was written by {$post->author->name}. "
. "It has been read {$post->summary->read_sum} times "
. "and has " . count($post->comments) . " comments. ";
// loop through the tags
if ($post->tags->isEmpty()) {
echo "It has no tags.";
} else {
echo "It has these tags: ";
$tags = [];
foreach ($post->tags as $tag) {
$tags[] = $tag->name;
}
echo implode(', ', $tags);
}
echo PHP_EOL;
}
?>We have a good amount of control over how the type objects create entities and
collections. The instantiation responsibilities are delegated to builder
objects. We can tell the type object what builders to use for entity and
collection objects by specifying 'entity_builder' and 'collection_builder'
values when defining the type. Similarly, we can tell the type object that
the entity builder will generate a particular class of object; this lets the
type object know when the loaded data has been converted to a entity object.
<?php
$manager->setType('posts', [
// the field with the unique identifying value
'identity_field' => 'id',
// an object to build entities; default is a new instance of
// Aura\Marshal\Entity\Builder
'entity_builder' => new \Vendor\Package\Posts\EntityBuilder,
// an object to build collections; default is a new instance of
// Aura\Marshal\Collection\Builder
'collection_builder' => new \Vendor\Package\Posts\CollectionBuilder,
]);
?>The builders should implement Aura\Marshal\Entity\BuilderInterface and
Aura\Marshal\Collection\BuilderInterface, respectively.
By default, the Type objects do not index the values when loading entities.
You are likely to see a performance improvement when Aura Marshal wires up
related collections if you add indexes for native fields used in
relationships. For example, you could tell the posts_tags association mapping
type to index on post_id and tag_id for faster lookups:
<?php
$manager->setType('posts_tags', [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'index_fields' => ['post_id', 'tag_id'],
]);
?>We suggest adding an index for all native_field fields in the relationships
for a Type (except the identity_field, which is a special case and does
not need indexing). Typically this is needed only on a type that belongs_to
another type.
Indexes are created only at load() time. They are not updated when the
entity object is modified.
There are times at which you will want to mark an entity for removal. You can
do so using the Type::removeEntity() method; this will remove it from the
the indexes, but retains it in the type object. Later, you can check to see
which entities have been removed using the Type::getRemovedEntities() method.
<?php
// remove the post with identity value 88
$manager->posts->removeEntity('88');
// get the list of removed entities
$removed_posts = $manager->posts->getRemovedEntities();
?>Alternative, you can clear out all entity objects from a type using
Type::clear(). To clear all entity objects from all types, use
Manager::clear(). These will reset the type objects to their initial
unloaded states, unsetting all objects, indexes, and references internally.
<?php
// clear all post entities
$manager->posts->clear();
// clear all entities from all types
$manager->clear();
?>You can define all your types and their relationships through the manager at instantiation time. The following is the equivalent all-at-once definition array for the above programmatic definitions, including indexes and relationships:
<?php
use Aura\Marshal\Manager;
use Aura\Marshal\Type\Builder as TypeBuilder;
use Aura\Marshal\Relation\Builder as RelationBuilder;
$manager = new Manager(new TypeBuilder, new RelationBuilder, [
'authors' => [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'relation_names' => [
'posts' => [
'relationship' => 'has_many',
'native_field' => 'id',
'foreign_field' => 'author_id',
],
],
],
'posts' => [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'index_fields' => ['author_id'],
'relation_names' => [
'meta' => [
'relationship' => 'has_one',
'foreign_type' => 'metas',
'native_field' => 'id',
'foreign_field' => 'post_id',
],
'comments' => [
'relationship' => 'has_many',
'native_field' => 'id',
'foreign_field' => 'post_id'
],
'author' => [
'relationship' => 'belongs_to',
'foreign_type' => 'authors',
'native_field' => 'author_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id',
],
'tags' => [
'relationship' => 'has_many_through',
'through_type' => 'posts_tags',
'native_field' => 'id',
'through_native_field' => 'post_id',
'through_foreign_field' => 'tag_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id'
],
],
],
'metas' => [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'index_fields' => ['post_id'],
'relation_names' => [
'post' => [
'relationship' => 'belongs_to',
'foreign_type' => 'posts',
'native_field' => 'post_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id',
],
],
],
'comments' => [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'index_fields' => ['post_id'],
'relation_names' => [
'post' => [
'relationship' => 'belongs_to',
'foreign_type' => 'posts',
'native_field' => 'post_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id',
],
],
],
'posts_tags' => [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'index_fields' => ['post_id', 'tag_id'],
'relation_names' => [
'post' => [
'relationship' => 'belongs_to',
'foreign_type' => 'posts',
'native_field' => 'post_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id',
],
'tag' => [
'relationship' => 'belongs_to',
'foreign_type' => 'tags',
'native_field' => 'tag_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id',
],
],
],
'tags' => [
'identity_field' => 'id',
'relation_names' => [
'posts' => [
'relationship' => 'has_many_through',
'native_field' => 'id',
'through_type' => 'posts_tags',
'through_native_field' => 'tag_id',
'through_foreign_field' => 'post_id',
'foreign_field' => 'id'
],
],
],
]);
?>