AliceFixturesBundle

A Symfony2 bundle for flexible usage of Alice and Faker in Symfony2.

Introduction

The aim of this bundle is to provide a new way of working with data fixtures detached from the common Doctrine DataFixtures. Loading of fixtures should be decoupled and easy to integrate where needed. This bundle offers loading Fixtures from yaml and php files, also dropping and recreating the ORM Schema.

If you are searching for Bundle, that provides a way to integrate Alice with Doctrine DataFixtures, have a look at hautelook/AliceBundle.

This bundle is also capeable of recreating the ORM schema. This means all tables managed by Doctrine will be dropped and recreated. A data loss will appear, you have been warned.

Installation

Simply require the bundle by its name with composer:

$ php composer.phar require h4cc/alice-fixtures-bundle

Follow the 'dev-master' branch for latest dev version. But i recommend to use more stable version tags if available.

After that, add the Bundle to your Kernel:

<?php
// app/AppKernel.php

public function registerBundles()
{
    $bundles = array(
        // ...
        new h4cc\AliceFixturesBundle\h4ccAliceFixturesBundle(),
        // ...
    );
}

Configuration

You can globally configure the Seed für random values, the Locale for Faker and a global flag do_flush, if ORM flushes of entities should be omitted or not.

# app/config/config.yml

h4cc_alice_fixtures:
    locale: en_US   # default
    seed: 1         # default
    do_flush: true  # default

Usage

Fixtures

Fixtures are defined in YAML or PHP Files like nelmio/alice describes it. The two alice default loaders 'Yaml' and 'Base' are already available. If you want to integrate own loaders, patch the Loader Factory service for your needs ('h4cc_alice_fixtures.loader.factory').

Loading the entities from single fixture files can be done with the FixtureManagerInterface::loadFiles(array $files, $type='yaml');. Persisting them can be done with FixtureManagerInterface::persist(array $entities, $drop=false);.

Example:

$files = array(__DIR__.'/fixtures/Users.yml', __DIR__.'/fixtures/Articles.yml');
$manager = $this->get('h4cc_alice_fixtures.manager');

// Step 1, load entities.
$objects = $manager->loadFiles($files, 'yaml');

// Manipulate or add own objects here ...

// Step 2, persist them.
$manager->persist($objects, true);

Fixture Sets

A more advanced way of loading fixtures is using "FixtureSets". Look at it like a Fixture configuration object for multiple fixture files and options.

Example:

$manager = $this->get('h4cc_alice_fixtures.manager');

// Get a FixtureSet with __default__ options.
$set = $manager->createFixtureSet();
$set->addFile(__DIR__.'/fixtures/Users.yml', 'yaml');
$set->addFile(__DIR__.'/fixtures/Articles.yml', 'yaml');

// Change locale for this set only.
$set->setLocale('de_DE');
// Define a custom random seed for "predictable randomness".
$set->setSeed(42);
// Enable persisting of objects
$set->setDoPersist(true);
// Enable dropping and recreating current ORM schema.
$set->setDoDrop(true);

$manager->load($set);

Commands

There are some command for loading fixtures included in this bundle. They are also divided in loading plain files or FixtureSets.

h4cc_alice_fixtures
  h4cc_alice_fixtures:load:files        Load fixture files using alice and faker.
  h4cc_alice_fixtures:load:sets         Load fixture sets using alice and faker.

Example for loading single files using all available options:

$ php app/console h4cc_alice_fixtures:load:files --type=yaml --seed=42 --local=de_DE --persist=true --drop=true src/Acme/DemoBundle/Fixtures/Users.yml src/Acme/DemoBundle/Fixtures/Articles.yml

Example command for loading the FixtureSet:

$ php app/console h4cc_alice_fixtures:load:sets src/Acme/DemoBundle/Fixtures/UsersAndArticlesSet.php

Preconfigured FixtureSet:

<?php

// Creating a fixture set with own configuration,
$set = new h4cc\AliceFixturesBundle\Fixtures\FixtureSet(array(
    'locale' => 'de_DE',
    'seed' => 42,
    'do_drop' => true,
    'do_persist' => true,
));

$set->addFile(__DIR__.'/Users.yml', 'yaml');
$set->addFile(__DIR__.'/Articles.yml', 'yaml');

return $set;

Such a file has to return a Object with the FixtureSetInterface Interface.

PHPUnit

If needed, the fixtures can also be loaded in a PHPUnit test. Accessing the needed container in a Symfony2 environment is described here: http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/testing.html#accessing-the-container

Example:

// Ensuring the same fixtures for each testcase.
public function setUp()
{
    // This may be slow ... have an eye on that.
    $client = static::createClient();
    $manager = $client->getContainer()->get('h4cc_alice_fixtures.manager');
    $manager->load(require(__DIR__.'/fixtures/FixtureSet.php'));
}

Selenium

This flexible way of handling data fixtures offers a easy way to work with selenium/behat/mink. For example could you create a controller behind a development route, that is called by selenium to ensure a specific dataset.

Adding own Providers for Faker

A provider for Faker can be any class, that has public methods. These methods can be used in the fixture files for own testdata or even calculations. To register a provider, create a service and tag it.

Example:

services:
    your.faker.provider:
        class: YourProviderClass
        tags:
            -  { name: h4cc_alice_fixtures.provider }

Adding own Processors for Alice

A alice processor can be used to manipulate a object before and after persisting. To register a own processor, create a service and tag it.

Example:

services:
    your.alice.processor:
        class: YourProcessorClass
        tags:
            -  { name: h4cc_alice_fixtures.processor }