Parable ORM

Parable ORM is a light-weight repository-pattern based ORM.

Install

Php 8.0+ and composer are required.

$ composer require parable-php/orm

Usage

Repositories are used to find, save and delete entities, which represent rows from your MySQL/Sqlite database. Parable ORM attempts to combine queries to be as efficient as possible.

Entities are relatively straight-forward PHP data objects, and are expected to offer setters and getters for all values associated with that entity. Example:

class Entity extends AbstractEntity {
    protected $id;
    protected $name;

    // We int cast because we know it is an int
    public function getId(): int {
        return (int)$this->id;
    }

    public function setName(string $name): void {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getName(): ?string {
        return $this->name;
    }
}

As you can see, the entity itself doesn't really need much. The Repository set up for this entity type, however, will contain some metadata so it knows how to handle them.

If you want to support automatic setting of a created at or updated at value, it's as simple as implementing either the SupportsCreatedAt or SupportsUpdatedAt interfaces. The repository will automatically pick up on it and attempt to call markCreatedAt() or markUpdatedAt(), leaving the specific property/column names up to you. Example:

class Entity extends AbstractEntity implements SupportsCreatedAt {
    protected $id;
    protected $created_at;

    // We int cast because we know it is an int
    public function getId(): int {
        return (int)$this->id;
    }

    public function getCreatedAt(): ?string {
        return $this->created_at;
    }

    public function setCreatedAt(string $createdAt): void {
        $this->created_at = $createdAt;
    }

    // Only this method is defined on the interface
    public function markCreatedAt(): void {
        $this->setCreatedAt((new DateTimeImmutable())->format(Database::DATETIME_SQL));
    }
}

Here's the Repository to handle the above Entity:

class EntityRepository extends AbstractRepository {
    public function getTableName(): string {
        return 'entity';
    }

    public function getPrimaryKey(): string {
        return 'id';
    }

    public function getEntityClass(): string {
        return Entity::class;
    }
}

As mentioned, both entities and repositories are intended to be as simple and straightforward as possible. Entities and Repositories use parable-php/di, meaning they can use constructor-based injected dependencies.

Basic Repository use

$repository->findAll(); // returns AbstractEntity[]

$repository->countAll(); // returns int

$repository->find(23); // returns ?AbstractEntity

Condition-based repository use

For advanced (and possibly complex) where conditions, we use a callable which is given a properly set up Query object. This allows for fine-grained control with a very low barrier to do so.

$repository->findBy(function (Query $query) {
    $query->where('name', '=', 'First-name');
    $query->whereNotNull('activated_at');
    $query->whereCallable(function (Query $query) {
        $query->where('test_value', '=', '1');
        $query->orWhere('test_value', '=', '4');
    });
});

This ends up building the following query:

SELECT * FROM `entity` 
WHERE (
    `entity`.`name` = 'First-name' 
    AND `entity`.`activated_at` IS NOT NULL 
    AND (
        `entity`.`test_value` = '1' 
        OR `entity`.`test_value` = '4'
    )
);

The methods where, whereNull, whereNotNull and whereCallable will use AND to combine the clauses. To do otherwise, all have an or-version. orWhere, orWhereNull, orWhereNotNull, orWhereCallable, and by using those specifically, an OR clause can be created.

In many cases you'll want to either only use or-clauses, or, to use an OR clause in an otherwise AND-oriented where list, use a callable to make sure they're grouped appropriately.

Saving and deleting entities

To save an entity, simply tell the repository to do so:

$savedEntity = $repository->save($entity);

Or save multiple:

$savedEntities = $repository->saveAll($entity1, $entity2, $entity3);

You can also easily defer a save, so that the entity is prepared for a save but not actually saved until you decide to do so. When this is done, all entities that need to be updated are saved individually as they are found in the deferred save list, but all entities that are new (aka to be INSERTed) are combined into a single INSERT query instead.

foreach ($newEntities as $entity) {
    $repository->deferSave($entity);
}
// OR:
$repository->deferSave(...$newEntities);

$repository->saveDeferred(); // returns nothing

If $newEntities contains 10 entities that are all new, one query will now insert all 10 in one go. If, for example, $newEntities contains 5 new and 5 pre-existing entities, saveDeferred will build the single INSERT query for the 5 new ones, and as it comes across them, save the updates immediately.

Deleting works the same:

$repository->delete($entity); // Single
$repository->delete($entity1, $entity2); // Multiple, just keep adding
$repository->delete(...$entities); // Splats for the win

And deferred deletes are also possible, and will attempt to delete all deferred entities in a single query:

$repository->deferDelete($entity); // Single
$repository->deferDelete($entity1, $entity2); // Multiple, just keep adding
$repository->deferDelete(...$entities); // Splats for the win

$repository->deleteDeferred(); // Actually perform it.

For both deferred saves and deletes, the currently stored entities to be saved or deleted can be cleared by calling either clearDeferredSaves() or clearDeferredDeletes().

How to connect to a database

You didn't think I'd ever forget this, do you? 2 database types are currently supported, MySQL and Sqlite3.

To connect to a MySQL server:

$database = new Database(
    Database::TYPE_MYSQL, 
    'parable',
    'localhost',
    'username',
    'password'
);

Or:

$database = new Database();
$database->setDatabaseName('parable');
$database->setHost('localhost');
$database->setUsername('username');
$database->setPassword('password');

$database->connect();

$results = $database->query('SELECT * FROM users');

And to connect to a Sqlite3 file:

$database = new Database(
    Database::TYPE_SQLITE, 
    'storage/parable.db'
);

Or:

$database = new Database();
$database->setDatabaseName('storage/parable.db');

$database->connect();

$results = $database->query('SELECT * FROM users');

Contributing

Any suggestions, bug reports or general feedback is welcome. Use github issues and pull requests, or find me over at devvoh.com.

License

All Parable components are open-source software, licensed under the MIT license.