Doctrine2 bug imports 'private' variables from MappedSuperClass when generating entities

Question

I'm using Symfony's entity classes in conjunction with Doctrine's ORM annotation to persist the values to the database. Most tables need a few standard fields, so I have created a base entity that all other entities can extend. According to the documentation this is called a MappedSuperClass: http://doctrine-orm.readthedocs.org/en/latest/reference/inheritance-mapping.html

// src/Acme/Bundle/Entity/Base.php
namespace Acme\Bundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * @ORM\MappedSuperclass
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks()
*/
class Base {

    /**
    * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
    * @ORM\Id
    * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
    */
    protected $id;

    // more values...

}

I then create multiple entities that extend this base:

// src/Acme/Bundle/Entity/View.php
namespace Acme\Bundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

View extends Entity\Base
{
     // entity definitions
}

Is this the best way to set default definitions for an entity? If you have better suggestions, let me know.

Next, when I generate entities via: php app/console doctrine:generate:entities Acme\Bundle

It works great the first time to create the getters and setters, but if I make changes to an entity and generate again, it gives an error like this:

Fatal error: Access level to Acme\Bundle\Entity\View::$id must be protected (as in class Acme\Bundle\Entity\Base) or weaker in /src/Acme/Bundle/Entity/View.php

This is happening because doctrine:generate:entities is importing the 'protected' variables from the MappedSuperClass into the extending entity as 'private'.

Others have complained about this error in other contexts without a solution: FOSUserBundle generate:entities does not work, Access level of fields too high https://github.com/FriendsOfSymfony/FOSUserBundle/issues/102

QUESTION: Is doctrine supposed to be importing the protected variables? And is it supposed to be setting them as "private"? Or is this just a known Symfony bug?

It seems like it should not import the protected variables since the @ORM definitions are in the MappedSuperClass already and those are not imported (and when I delete the imported private variables it works fine). But if it does import them, it should not be setting them as private...

I literally have to do a search and replace through all my entities to delete these. Every. Single. Time.

What is the suggested course of action here? If this is a bug, has someone reported this and what is the timeline for fixing? How should I search for this issue on github and report it if it's not reported?

Question 2: As long as this bug exists, is there a way to just generate the getters/setters on a Single Entity? e.g. php app/console doctrine:generate:entities Acme\Bundle\Entity\View (this doesn't work of course). If I could generate only one entity at a time, it would be less of a hassle deleting all the imported private variables across all my entities. [EDIT: I have answered this question below]

Chadwick Meyer Chadwick Meyer · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22T22:33:18

The answer to #2 is, yes, you can generate entity getters/setters for just one single entity.

From the command line, if you type:

php app/console doctrine:generate:entities --help

You get a list of options. There you will see how to limit entities to bundle, single entity in a bundle, or an entire namespace:

You have to limit generation of entities:
* To a bundle: 
php app/console doctrine:generate:entities MyCustomBundle

* To a single entity:
php app/console doctrine:generate:entities MyCustomBundle:User
php app/console doctrine:generate:entities MyCustomBundle/Entity/User

* To a namespace
php app/console doctrine:generate:entities MyCustomBundle/Entity

Doctrine2 bug imports 'private' variables from MappedSuperClass when generating entities

QUESTION: Is doctrine supposed to be importing the protected variables? And is it supposed to be setting them as "private"? Or is this just a known Symfony bug?

2 Answers