Doctrine – Add default time stamp to entity like NOW()

Following the Doctrine guidelines I understand how to set a default value for an Entity, but what if I wanted a date/time stamp?

• http://docs.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-orm/en/2.1/reference/faq.html

My problem is my database has a default of NOW() on a field but when I use Doctrine to insert a record the values are null or blank but the rest of the insert happened.

Also since Doctrine says to declare the default as a const, this also creates a problem.

Suggestions?

Answer

Ok I found the solution:

• https://doctrine-orm.readthedocs.org/en/latest/reference/php-mapping.html?highlight=callback
• http://doctrine-orm.readthedocs.org/en/latest/reference/events.html#lifecycle-events

The prePersist option is what I’m doing.

Make sure you define in the annotations

<?php

/** @Entity 
 *  @HasLifecycleCallbacks 
 */
class User

and here is the function example they offer

/** 
 *  @PrePersist 
 */
public function doStuffOnPrePersist()
{
    $this->createdAt = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
}

And if you’re using ORM like I am

<?php

/** @ORMEntity 
 *  @ORMHasLifecycleCallbacks 
 */
class User

and here is the function example they offer

/** 
 *  @ORMPrePersist 
 */
public function doStuffOnPrePersist()
{
    $this->createdAt = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
}