zend framework and doctrine (getters and setters)

Question

Is it possible to use doctrine on existing entity models like:

class user{
protected $_id;
protected $_name;

public function set_id($_id){}
public function get_id(){}
public function set_name($_name){}
public function get_name(){}
}

or to generate or use models with hard-coded getters and setters.

I dont want to use

$user->name
$user['name'] 
$user->get('name')

can this be done with doctrine?

Thanx

Answer 1

For all Versions up to Doctrine 1.2: Your entity models class needs to extend the Doctrine_Record class.

The definition of the model fields needs to be done the "doctrine way" too. See: http://www.doctrine-project.org/documentation/manual/1_2/en/defining-models

example:

public function setTableDefinition() {

   $this->hasColumn('username', 'string', 255);
   $this->hasColumn('password', 'string', 255);

}

If you want to use your own custom hard coded setters/getters you can override the magic getters/setters. See: http://www.doctrine-project.org/documentation/manual/1_2/en/introduction-to-models example:

class User extends BaseUser {

public function setPassword($password)
{
    return $this->_set('password', md5($password));
} 

}

One last remark/question: Using the magic setter/getter methods is good practise.. You should only use custom methods, if you need to manipulate the data in some way.