Symfony2: How to access to service from repository

Question

I have class ModelsRepository:

class ModelsRepository extends EntityRepository
{}

And service

container_data:
 class:               


        

Answer 1

IMHO, this shouldn't be needed since you may easily break rules like SRP and Law of Demeter

But if you really need it, here's a way to do this:

First, we define a base "ContainerAwareRepository" class which has a call "setContainer"

services.yml

services:
    # This is the base class for any repository which need to access container
    acme_bundle.repository.container_aware:
        class: AcmeBundle\Repository\ContainerAwareRepository
        abstract: true
        calls:
            - [ setContainer, [ @service_container ] ]

The ContainerAwareRepository may looks like this

AcmeBundle\Repository\ContainerAwareRepository.php

abstract class ContainerAwareRepository extends EntityRepository
{
    protected $container;

    public function setContainer(ContainerInterface $container)
    {
        $this->container = $container;
    }
}

Then, we can define our Model Repository.
We use here, the doctrine's getRepository method in order to construct our repository

services.yml

services:
    acme_bundle.models.repository:
        class: AcmeBundle\Repository\ModelsRepository
        factory_service: doctrine.orm.entity_manager
        factory_method:  getRepository
        arguments:
            - "AcmeBundle:Models"
        parent:
            acme_bundle.repository.container_aware

And then, just define the class

AcmeBundle\Repository\ModelsRepository.php

class ModelsRepository extends ContainerAwareRepository
{
    public function findFoo()
    {
        $this->container->get('fooservice');
    }
}

In order to use the repository, you absolutely need to call it from the service first.

$container->get('acme_bundle.models.repository')->findFoo(); // No errors
$em->getRepository('AcmeBundle:Models')->findFoo(); // No errors

But if you directly do

$em->getRepository('AcmeBundle:Models')->findFoo(); // Fatal error, container is undefined