Is it good practice to make static find methods in Doctrine models

Question

Sometimes I have complicated find procedures and I'm feeling dirty to repeat this code in my Controller.

Now I am thinking, it is possible to do something like this:

class User extends BaseUser
{

    private static function getTable()
    {
        return Doctrine_Core::getTable('User');
    }

    public static function findAll()
    {
        return getTable()->findAll();
    }

    public function currentEnrolments() {
        $query = Doctrine_Query::create()
                ->from('Enrolment e')
                ->where('e.user_id = ?', $this->id)
                ->addWhere('e.finish_date IS NULL');
        return $query->execute();
    }

}

Is this a good practice? Or should I only put non static members like the query I have shown?

Answer 1

Generally, if it saves you time, there nothing to lose and every minute you can save to gain.

Functions like getTable and findAll are probably not saving you a lot, but custom queries for finding stuff more specific to your application will definitely be worth it.

Answer 2

Hi, I have got pretty much the same approach.

• I wouldn't bother with your static proxies of getTable() and findAll().
  • That doesn't really add any value to your code
  • I, personnaly, never call findAll() on any model object as you will generally need
    • to cross-check against a foreign key
    • paginate / sort
    • ...
• regarding your currentEnrolments() function, this is worth doing as you have a bit of logic on this ->addWhere('e.finish_date IS NULL'), thus explaining you can't use the "magic" Doctrine relation ->Enrolment. Maybe this is something Doctrine 2 is resolving, need to check this out ...

Regards