Symfony set `createdBy` and `modifiedBy` properties of entity

Question

I want to automatically set the createdBy and modifiedBy properties of an entity.

To set these properties I use the doctrine lifecycle hooks prePersist and preUseras described here: https://symfony.com/doc/current/doctrine/events.html#doctrine-lifecycle-callbacks. I also created a setCreatedByValue and setModifiedByValue functions to set the fields ...

Is there any best practice on how to write the currently logged-in user into these properties? Is there a let's say "more elegant" way than injecting the security service into the entity?

How would you do that?

Answer 1

I now searched through the Symfony docs once again and chose the following approach for me:

I created an EntitySubscriber as described here: https://symfony.com/doc/current/doctrine/events.html#doctrine-lifecycle-subscribers

After that, I created two interfaces TimestampInterface (for createdAt and modifiedAt) and a UserAwareInterface (for createdBy and modifiedBy). I also created an AbstractEntity that implements the interfaces mentioned above. Now I can extend each entity (which needs this functionality) with the AbstractEntity class ...

Then I simply created a doctrine.event_subscriber (as described in the docs) and checked for the interfaces to set certain fields.

To set the createdBy and modifiedBy fields I used the Security container. Works pretty well - and with this solution, I don't rely on any third-party libs.

<?php 

namespace Foo\Bar\EventListener;

use Doctrine\Bundle\DoctrineBundle\EventSubscriber\EventSubscriberInterface;
use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PrePersistEventArgs;
use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreUpdateEventArgs;
use Doctrine\ORM\Events;
use Symfony\Bundle\SecurityBundle\Security;
use Foo\Bar\Entity\TimestampInterface;
use Foo\Bar\Entity\UserAwareInterface;

class EntitySubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{
    public function __construct(
        public Security $security,
    ) {}

    public function getSubscribedEvents(): array
    {
        return [
            Events::prePersist,
            Events::preUpdate
        ];
    }

    public function prePersist(PrePersistEventArgs $prePersistEventArgs): void
    {
        $object = $prePersistEventArgs->getObject();

        if($object instanceof TimestampInterface){
            $object->setCreatedAt(time());
            $object->setModifiedAt(time());
        }

        if($object instanceof UserAwareInterface){
            $object->setCreatedBy($this->security->getUser()->getId());
            $object->setModifiedBy($this->security->getUser()->getId());
        }
    }

    public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $preUpdateEventArgs): void
    {
        $object = $preUpdateEventArgs->getObject();

        if($object instanceof TimestampInterface){
            $object->setModifiedAt(time());
        }

        if($object instanceof UserAwareInterface){
            $object->setModifiedBy($this->security->getUser()->getId());
        }
    }
}

What do you think about that solution?