Doctrine 2 LifecycleCallbacks with abstract base class are not called

Question

I have this situation:

Abstract Class:

abstract class AbstractBase
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @var integer
     */
    protected $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="datetime", name="updated_at")
     * @var \DateTime $updatedAt
     */
    protected $updatedAt;

    /**
     * @ORM\PreUpdate
     */
    public function setUpdatedAt()
    {
        die('THIS POINT IS NEVER REACHED');
        $this->updatedAt = new \DateTime();
    }
}

Concrete Class:

/**
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Entity\Repository\UserRepository")
 * @ORM\Table(name="users")
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
 */
class User extends AbstractBase
{
    // some fields, relations and setters/getters defined here, these all work as expected.
}

Then i call it in my controller like this:

$user = $this->em->find('Entity\User', 1);
// i call some setters here like $user->setName('asd');
$this->em->flush();
die('end');

Everything works as expected, so the id field from the abstract class gets created for the User entity, i can access it etc. The problem is, that the line "die('THIS POINT IS NEVER REACHED')" is never reached. (Note the @ORM\PreUpdate) This means that lifecycleCallbacks are not called on inherited objects. Is this a bug, or is there a reason for this?

Answer 1

Your abstract base class has to be anotated as Mapped Superclasses and include the HasLifecycleCallbacks-Annotation.

Further Information: Inheritance Mapping in the Doctrine Documentation.

/**
 * @ORM\MappedSuperclass
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
 */
abstract class AbstractBase
{
    [...]

    /**
     * @ORM\PreUpdate
     */
    public function setUpdatedAt()
    {
        $this->updatedAt = new \DateTime();
    }
}

/**
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Entity\Repository\UserRepository")
 * @ORM\Table(name="users")
 */
class User extends AbstractBase
{
    // some fields, relations and setters/getters defined here, these all work as expected.
}

Answer 2

You have to annotate the base class with @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks, and the function with @ORM\preUpdate

You have a typo (PreUpdate should be preUpdate), also preUpdate isn't called on creation (only on update). So if you want it also be triggered on creation, you should add @ORM\prePersist.

Answer 3

While the accepted reply is correct for the general case, in this particular case (timestamp) you actually want to use the doctrine extension Timestampable as explained for example here Lifecycle Callback Issue When Extending FOSUserBundle User Entity