[TYPO3-core] RFC: Integrate Doctrine2 into TYPO3 CMS

[Oliver Hader]

Hi everybody,

currently there are some discussions out in the wild on integrating
Doctrine2 into TYPO3 CMS. Since this step has advantages, but maybe also
some disadvantages, I'd like to bring up the topic here in the list and
hope that some experts could give their feedback and statements.

The current persistence layer in Extbase is a self-made way to store
data, the various types of relations and any other combinations and
aggregates. By using Doctrine as persistence layer, the part of
maintaining and extending our custom solution would be drastically
reduced - however it's still some work to get there [sic!].

In general it can be summarized to the following goals:
* lower the effort to maintain our custom persistence layer
* add the possibility to have better support for translation and
  workspaces
* use a standard that has been proven to be good and flexible
* and thus get a bit more in sync with TYPO3 Flow again which utilizes
  Doctrine already for quite some time

Since the new/alternative persistence layer for Doctrine is not only
helpful for Extbase components, it might be included on a more prominent
level in the Core and be available for "regular" parts as well - those,
that are not based on Extbase.
That being said, one might think about t3lib_TCEmain/DataHandler, which
takes care of persisting data, handling workspaces and translations and
puts everything into (non-transactional) SQL statements. Thus, this part
needs to be considered as well to be working with the current/legacy
structures and the new flexible possibilities - so, I see both
"persistence layers" existing side-by-side for some time.

Thomas Maroschik already created a first draft concerning Doctrine
integration [1].

Besides that, as a historic look-up, there was a discussion about 2
years ago with the subject "The Extbase dilemma" [2]. You'll find some
references on Doctrine and the custom ORM part in Extbase there as well.

So, now it's up to you to give feedback and your experience on using
Doctrine with components in the Core of the TYPO3 CMS. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Olly


[1]
http://git.typo3.org/TYPO3v4/Core.git/commit/b0a64733d2de2396c1f91dd559b37f0a4b652766
[2] http://lists.typo3.org/pipermail/typo3-dev/2011-May/043180.html
-- 
Oliver Hader
TYPO3 CMS Core Team Leader

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