Using PHP attributes instead of doctrine annotations – rector PHP.

PHP as of version 8.0 has native attributes. To easily convert annotations into attributes throughout the application, we can use the Rector .

Where can we use attributes instead of annotations?

• Doctrine entites mapping
• Routing mapping
• All custom annotations that we wrote
• Validator configuration

What will we need?

• Rector

To install rector type in the console:

composer require rector/rector --dev

• Doctrine version >=2.9

After installing the rector and making sure you have doctrine version >=2.9, initialize the rector using the command

vendor/bin/rector init

The rector.php configuration file should appear in the root directory.

Below the configuration to turn annotations into attributes for an application written in Symfony.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Rector\CodingStyle\Rector\Use_\RemoveUnusedAliasRector;
use Rector\Core\Configuration\Option;
use Rector\Doctrine\Set\DoctrineSetList;
use Rector\Symfony\Set\SymfonySetList;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator\ContainerConfigurator;

return static function (ContainerConfigurator $containerConfigurator): void {
    $parameters = $containerConfigurator->parameters();
    $parameters->set(Option::AUTO_IMPORT_NAMES, true);
    $parameters->set(Option::IMPORT_SHORT_CLASSES, true);


    $containerConfigurator->import(DoctrineSetList::ANNOTATIONS_TO_ATTRIBUTES);
    $containerConfigurator->import(SymfonySetList::ANNOTATIONS_TO_ATTRIBUTES);

    $containerConfigurator->import(SymfonySetList::SYMFONY_CODE_QUALITY);
    $containerConfigurator->import(SymfonySetList::SYMFONY_CONSTRUCTOR_INJECTION);

    $services = $containerConfigurator->services();

    $services->set(RemoveUnusedAliasRector::class);
};

Then we can check what changes the rector will make to the files

vendor/bin/rector process src --dry-run

If you don’t notice anything alarming, just use the above command without --dry-run

vendor/bin/rector process src

At the end we have to change the doctrine.yaml configuration file, we are looking for the parameter responsible for the mapping type, it is located in doctrine.orm.mappings.{namespace[default App]}.type and we replace annotation with attribute.

That’s all, at the end if we don’t need the rector just remove it:

composer remove rector/rector --dev

Then delete the rector.php file.