Creating a simple fixture class

Let’s walk through it with the same example as in the DoctrineFixtureBundle documentation. Imagine that you have a User class, and you would like to load a couple of User entries.

First, we would create a YAML file with the necessary information:

# src/Acme/HelloBundle/DataFixtures/ORM/Data/User.yml

options:
  add_reference: true
data:
  admin:
    username: admin
    password: admin
  test:
    username: test
    password: test

Note: we will explain what options are available and what they do later on.

Then, we will need a fixture class to load the information:

<?php
// src/Acme/HelloBundle/DataFixtures/ORM/LoadUserData.php

namespace Acme\HelloBundle\DataFixtures\ORM;

class LoadUserData extends AcmeHelloOrmFixture
{
    protected $name = 'User';
}

That’s it! Well, not so fast. Notice LoadUserData is extending AcmeHelloOrmFixture, which we have not written yet. Luckily, it is also quite simple and we only need one like this per bundle. Here it is:

<?php
// src/Acme/HelloBundle/DataFixtures/ORM/AcmeHelloOrmFixture.php

namespace Acme\HelloBundle\DataFixtures\ORM;

use Zanui\FixturesBundle\DataFixtures\ZanuiOrmFixture;

abstract class AcmeHelloOrmFixture extends ZanuiOrmFixture
{
    protected $baseDir = __DIR__;
}

And now that really is it!

Of course, you could choose to add the baseDir property on the loading classes and extend them directly from ZanuiOrmFixture, but if you have a lot of classes this is the preferred way to go. Anyway, this is how the LoadUserData would look like in that case:

<?php
// src/Acme/HelloBundle/DataFixtures/ORM/LoadUserData.php

namespace Acme\HelloBundle\DataFixtures\ORM;

use Zanui\FixturesBundle\DataFixtures\ZanuiOrmFixture;

class LoadUserData extends ZanuiOrmFixture
{
    protected $baseDir = __DIR__;
    protected $name = 'User';
}

Notice that without AcmeHelloOrmFixture, we would need to add the use statement and the baseDir property to all fixture classes.

You might feel like there is still something missing: how is ZanuiOrmFixture calling the setter methods for my User entity, or even creating the entity in the first place? You are right to feel that way, but everything works because we followed a specific directory structure and stuck to a few naming conventions.