Where to encrypt/decrypt my data?

Question

I\'m using Symfony 2 with Doctrine 2.

I need to encrypt a field in my entity using an encryption service, and I\'m wondering where should I put this logic.

I\'m

Answer 1

I don't know if it's the right way at all, but I implemented this recently by creating a custom mapping type, as per the Doctrine docs. Something like the following:

class EncryptedStringType extends TextType
{
    const MYTYPE = 'encryptedstring'; // modify to match your type name

    public function convertToPHPValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        return base64_decode($value);
    }

    public function convertToDatabaseValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)
    {
        return base64_encode($value);
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return self::MYTYPE;
    }
}

I registered this type in my bundle class:

class MyOwnBundle extends Bundle
{
    public function boot()
    {
        $em = $this->container->get("doctrine.orm.entity_manager");
        try
        {
            Type::addType("encryptedstring", "My\OwnBundle\Type\EncryptedStringType");

            $em->
                getConnection()->
                getDatabasePlatform()->
                registerDoctrineTypeMapping("encryptedstring", "encryptedstring");
        } catch (\Doctrine\DBAL\DBALException $e)
        {
            // For some reason this exception gets thrown during
            // the clearing of the cache. I didn't have time to
            // find out why :-)
        }
    }
}

and then I was able to reference it when creating my entities, eg:

/**
 * @ORM\Column(type="encryptedstring")
 * @Assert\NotBlank()
 */
protected $name;

This was a quick implementation, so I'd be interested to know the correct way of doing it. I presume also that your encryption service is something available from the container; I don't know how feasible/possible it would be to pass services into custom types this way either... :-)