Mapping

So far the User aggregate only contains a string property. By default Formal also supports these primitive types:

• bool
• int
• string
• ?bool
• ?int
• ?string

Using primitive types is fine when you prototype the design of your aggregates. But you SHOULD use dedicated classes for each kind of value to better convey meaning and expected behaviour, this is what Typing is truely about. (1)

1. It also has the benefit to immensely simplify refactoring your code.

Types is essential in the Formal design. You'll learn in the next chapter how to support your custom types.

By default Formal also supports:

• Innmind\Immutable\Str from innmind/immutable (1)
• Innmind\TimeContinuum\PointInTime from innmind/time-continuum

1. Beware! It won't store the encoding, when fetched it will use Innmind\Immutable\Str\Encoding::utf8

Note

Formal can support the PointInTime type but you still need to declare it like this:

use Formal\ORM\{
    Manager,
    Definition\Aggregates,
    Definition\Types,
    Definition\Type\Support,
    Definition\Type\PointInTimeType,
};
use Innmind\TimeContinuum\PointInTime;

$orm = Manager::of(
    /* any adapter (1) */,
    Aggregates::of(
        Types::of(
            Support::class(
                PointInTime::class,
                PointInTimeType::new($os->clock()),
            ),
        ),
    ),
);

1. See the Adapters chapter to see all the adapters you can use.

The $os variable comes from the innmind/operating-system package.