How can I add the Entity Manager to a custom class or service?

Question

In Symfony2, how can I go about adding Doctrine's entity manager to a custom class or service?

I have tried $em = $this->get("doctrine.orm.entity_manager"); and $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager();

Both failed, which led me to try and extend the Controller class with my custom class/service, and that died in a giant ball of fire.

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 05 '11 at 23:38

8

You do not have to define your controller as a service in order to access the EntityManager. The Controller::getDoctrine() method mentioned above simply returns the Doctrine Registry by calling $this->container->get('doctrine') after checking that the doctrine service is actually available.

Simply make your custom class/controller extend ContainerAware and define a shortcut method like:

public function getEntityManager() {
    return $this->container->get('doctrine')->getEntityManager();
}

Note that it's $this->container->get(..) and not $this->get(..) in a class extending/implementing ContainerAware.

answered Nov 05 '11 at 23:38

dylan oliver

1,274
9
16

I get "Call to a member function get() on a non-object in ..." when using the above method. – someuser Apr 13 '13 at 08:49
are you extending ``ContainerAware``? – dylan oliver Apr 15 '13 at 16:05
Where is ContainerAware? – Mar 27 '14 at 20:30

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '11 at 18:07

You need to inject the entity manager service into your custom service. Your service definition should look like this:

my.service.name:
  class:     my\class
  arguments: [ @doctrine.orm.default_entity_manager ]

Make sure that your service's __construct method takes the entity manager as an argument.

See the Service Container chapter for more info.

BTW, $this->getDoctrine() is a shortcut method that will only work in a class that extends Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller

In Symfony 2.3 I'm using "@doctrine.orm.entity_manager". Is there a difference between "@doctrine.orm.entity_manager" and "@doctrine.orm.default_entity_manager" ? — Jay Sheth, Mar 21 '14 at 20:19

How can I add the Entity Manager to a custom class or service?

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