Reference Mapping ================= This chapter explains how references between documents are mapped with Doctrine. Collections ----------- Examples of many-valued references in this manual make use of a ``Collection`` interface and a corresponding ``ArrayCollection`` implementation, which are defined in the ``Doctrine\Common\Collections`` namespace. These classes have no dependencies on ODM, and can therefore be used within your domain model and elsewhere without introducing coupling to the persistence layer. ODM also provides a ``PersistentCollection`` implementation of ``Collection``, which incorporates change-tracking functionality; however, this class is constructed internally during hydration. As a developer, you should develop with the ``Collection`` interface in mind so that your code can operate with any implementation. .. note:: New in 1.1: you are no longer limited to using ``ArrayCollection`` and can freely use your own ``Collection`` implementation. For more details please see :doc:`Custom Collections ` chapter. Why are these classes used over PHP arrays? Native arrays cannot be transparently extended in PHP, which is necessary for many advanced features provided by the ODM. Although PHP does provide various interfaces that allow objects to operate like arrays (e.g. ``Traversable``, ``Countable``, ``ArrayAccess``), and even a concrete implementation in ``ArrayObject``, these objects cannot always be used everywhere that a native array is accepted. Doctrine's ``Collection`` interface and ``ArrayCollection`` implementation are conceptually very similar to ``ArrayObject``, with some slight differences and improvements. .. _reference_one: Reference One ------------- Reference one document: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml Product: type: document referenceOne: shipping: targetDocument: Documents\Shipping .. _reference_many: Reference Many -------------- Reference many documents: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml User: type: document referenceMany: accounts: targetDocument: Documents\Account .. _reference_mixing_document_types: Mixing Document Types --------------------- If you want to store different types of documents in references, you can simply omit the ``targetDocument`` option: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml referenceMany: favorites: ~ Now the ``$favorites`` property can store a reference to any type of document! The class name will be automatically stored in a field named ``_doctrine_class_name`` within the `DBRef`_ object. .. note:: The MongoDB shell tends to ignore fields other than ``$id`` and ``$ref`` when displaying `DBRef`_ objects. You can verify the presence of any ``$db`` and discriminator fields by querying and examining the document with a driver. See `SERVER-10777 `_ for additional discussion on this issue. The name of the field within the DBRef object can be customized via the ``discriminatorField`` option: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml referenceMany: favorites: discriminatorField: type You can also specify a discriminator map to avoid storing the |FQCN| in each `DBRef`_ object: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml referenceMany: favorites: discriminatorMap: album: Documents\Album song: Documents\Song If you have references without a discriminator value that should be considered a certain class, you can optionally specify a default discriminator value: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml referenceMany: favorites: discriminatorMap: album: Documents\Album song: Documents\Song defaultDiscriminatorValue: album .. _storing_references: Storing References ------------------ By default all references are stored as a `DBRef`_ object with the traditional ``$ref``, ``$id``, and (optionally) ``$db`` fields (in that order). For references to documents of a single collection, storing the collection (and database) names for each reference may be redundant. You can use simple references to store the referenced document's identifier (e.g. ``MongoId``) instead of a `DBRef`_. Example: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml referenceOne: profile: storeAs: id Now, the ``profile`` field will only store the ``MongoId`` of the referenced Profile document. Simple references reduce the amount of storage used, both for the document itself and any indexes on the reference field; however, simple references cannot be used with discriminators, since there is no `DBRef`_ object in which to store a discriminator value. In addition to saving references as `DBRef`_ with ``$ref``, ``$id``, and ``$db`` fields and as ``MongoId``, it is possible to save references as `DBRef`_ without the ``$db`` field. This solves problems when the database name changes (and also reduces the amount of storage used). The ``storeAs`` option has the following possible values: - **dbRefWithDb**: Uses a `DBRef`_ with ``$ref``, ``$id``, and ``$db`` fields (this is the default) - **dbRef**: Uses a `DBRef`_ with ``$ref`` and ``$id`` - **ref**: Uses a custom embedded object with an ``id`` field - **id**: Uses the identifier of the referenced object .. note:: The ``storeAs=id`` option used to be called a "simple reference". The old syntax is still recognized (so using ``simple=true`` will imply ``storeAs=id``). .. note:: For backwards compatibility ``storeAs=dbRefWithDb`` is the default, but    ``storeAs=ref`` is the recommended setting. Cascading Operations -------------------- By default, Doctrine will not cascade any ``UnitOfWork`` operations to referenced documents. You must explicitly enable this functionality: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php .. code-block:: yaml referenceOne: profile: cascade: [persist] The valid values are: - **all** - cascade all operations by default. - **detach** - cascade detach operation to referenced documents. - **merge** - cascade merge operation to referenced documents. - **refresh** - cascade refresh operation to referenced documents. - **remove** - cascade remove operation to referenced documents. - **persist** - cascade persist operation to referenced documents. Orphan Removal -------------- There is another concept of cascading that is relevant only when removing documents from collections. If a Document of type ``A`` contains references to privately owned Documents ``B`` then if the reference from ``A`` to ``B`` is removed the document ``B`` should also be removed, because it is not used anymore. OrphanRemoval works with both reference one and many mapped fields. .. note:: When using the ``orphanRemoval=true`` option Doctrine makes the assumption that the documents are privately owned and will **NOT** be reused by other documents. If you neglect this assumption your documents will get deleted by Doctrine even if you assigned the orphaned documents to another one. As a better example consider an Addressbook application where you have Contacts, Addresses and StandingData: .. code-block:: php addresses = new ArrayCollection(); } public function newStandingData(StandingData $sd) { $this->standingData = $sd; } public function removeAddress($pos) { unset($this->addresses[$pos]); } } Now two examples of what happens when you remove the references: .. code-block:: php find("Addressbook\Contact", $contactId); $contact->newStandingData(new StandingData("Firstname", "Lastname", "Street")); $contact->removeAddress(1); $dm->flush(); In this case you have not only changed the ``Contact`` document itself but you have also removed the references for standing data and as well as one address reference. When flush is called not only are the references removed but both the old standing data and the one address documents are also deleted from the database. .. _`DBRef`: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/database-references/#dbrefs .. |FQCN| raw:: html FQCN