PHP Data Access Libraries (ORM, ActiveRecord, Persistence) | Comparison tables

Link	Doctrine	Agile Data	Eloquent	Yii ORM	Cake ORM	Fuel ORM	Red Bean PHP	Ting	Spiral ORM	..
Sito web	doctrine-project.org	git.io/ad		yiiframework.com			redbeanphp.com	ccmbg.com/...	spiral-framework.com/...
Descrizione		Data Access Framework for high-latency databases (Cloud SQL/NoSQL).					RedBeanPHP is an easy to use ORM for PHP. It's a Zero Config ORM lib that 'automagically' builds your database schema.	Simple: no magic inside : it’s basically SQL queries	ORM engine with automatic database scaffolding, strict schemas, code discovery, modular database partitions and various relation loaders.
Github / Bitbucket / Sourceforge	github.com/...	git.io/ad		github.com/...			github.com/...	bitbucket.org/...	github.com/...
License	MIT	MIT		BSD-3			New BSD / GPL	Apache 2	MIT
Latest version	2.5.5	1.2.x		2.0.10			4.3.2	3.4.2	1.0.8
How schema is defined?	PHP, XML, YAML	in PHP. Method init() in Model class defines fields, relations, conditions, etc.	Model class properties	Active record magic properties.			Automatically discovered on the fly.	PHP	PHP Const array. Column class.
Code generation	Sì schema-tool	Sì https://github.com/atk4/schema		Sì Web and console generator https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2-gii
Can be used in Any Framework	Sì composer / packagist	Sì Through composer/packagist	Sì Through Capsule	- Planned in 2.1.x			Sì	Sì composer / packagist
Automated Cache		Sì Frameworks focuses on optimizing queries rather then caching. Still possible with cross-persistence saving.	Sì	Sì
Anti-patterns (purposely included)		Model close-coupled with Persistence and Field classes.	Eloquent is a God Class; Global functions; DB Conection is global;
Audience
Dependencies	Medium: ±5 packages.	Minimal: 2 packages: DSQL Query Builder (git.io/...						Minimal: 3, pimple, doctrine/cache, aura/sqlquery
Simplicity	no rating	*5.0/5* 2 ratings	no rating	*5.0/5* 2 ratings	*5.0/5* 1 rating	no rating	no rating	*5.0/5* 1 rating	no rating	no rating
Enterprise Compliance	*5.0/5* 1 rating	*5.0/5* 2 ratings	*3.0/5* 1 rating	*4.5/5* 2 ratings	*5.0/5* 1 rating	no rating	no rating	*5.0/5* 1 rating	no rating	no rating
Minimum PHP Version	5.4	5.6		5.4				5.5
Basic Features
PDO Support	Sì Yes	Sì Yes	Sì	Sì				- But made a custom driver to support it is easy	Sì https://spiral-framework.com/guide/database-databases
Transparent support for NoSQL		- Through 3rd party drivers.	No Eloquent is built on Query Builder. Perhaps moloquent? Also - Through Caching backend, but not as ORM native persistence.	Sì Avialable cross sql and nosql datababase relations (https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2-mongodb)			No Build around plain queries.	No	No No, through ODM (https://spiral-framework.com/guide/odm-databases)
How to invoke db-vendor-specific extensions?	Sì DBAL	Sì For SQL - save/load/delete operations are expressed in DSQL Queries that can be manipulated: http://git.io/dsql	Sì Through Query Builder / RAW queries.	Sì SQL - Query Builder.			- Can add SQL code chunks.	Sì Ting use native query, you can use everyting of your SGBD	Sì Query models: https://spiral-framework.com/guide/orm-query
Array as a persistence		Sì CRUD operations supported		Sì https://github.com/yii2tech/filedb			No		No
RestAPI as a persistence		- Through 3rd party extension.		- To extend BaseActiveRecord			No		No
JSON string as a persistence		Sì Supported with few extra lines of code.		- To extend BaseActiveRecord			No		No
Same model, multiple persistences		Sì Same class. Different object.		- (no docs)
Basic Single-record operations (C,R,U,D)
Table Name Mapping	Sì Yes	Sì Yes	Sì Same as model class name by default	Sì Using static method of active record. http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/guide-db-active-record.html#declaring-ar-classes			No mapping no longer supported.	Sì Yes
Field Name Mapping	Sì Yes, (Annotations in PHP)	Sì Yes (Field::actual property)	- Through accessors/3rd party extension	Sì			No mapping no longer supported.	Sì Yes
Map Entity to SubQuery	No Must be physical table	Sì Yes. Extension exist for UNION-models. https://github.com/atk4/report	No Must be physical table.	- table = new Expression(..)			No	No This concept is no-sense for Ting
Map property to expression	No Must be physical field	Sì $model->addExpression()	No Must be physical table	- (couldn't find docs)			No	No This concept is no-sense for Ting
Map native types (DateTime)		Sì $field->type = 'date'	Sì Accessors and Mutators	Sì Active record behaviors			Sì	Sì Yes	- No support for DateTime. https://spiral-framework.com/guide/orm-accessors
User-defined types (e.g. "23 USD")	Sì Type class	Sì Yes. Independent from Model. by extending Field class.	Sì Accessors and Mutators	Sì Active record behaviors				Sì Yes, with custom serializer
Map field of related Entity ('currency' = currency_id->Model Currency.name)	- Specific record only	Sì Transparently maps into sub-select.	- Relationship, but only single record.	Sì $model->currency->name			No	Sì Yes
Map field to sub-query on related entity (Client.balance = Client->orders->sum(total))	No	Sì Yes. hasMany()->addField(..aggregate)	No	- (couldn't find docs)			No	- This concept is no-sense for Ting
Entity to join multiple tables (adding new record populates both tables)	Sì Associations	Sì $model->join('other_table')	No	No No native support.			No	Sì Yes
Criteria, Scope, Conditions (Model will refuse to work with records that does not match criteria)
Support model-level criteria		Sì Yes. Applied on loading / saving / update.	- Global Scope (querying only)	No			No
Soft-delete	Sì Extension	Sì Through criteria. Example given in the docs.	Sì Trait and Scope	Sì Events and behaviors			No
Domain Model Criteria		Sì $m->addCondition('gender','M'); where 'gender' can be arbitrary expression, sub-select, field from association(join) or mapped no another physical field.	- Scopes, but not in domain model.	No Only for specific query: User::find()->byEmail('...')->active()->one()			No
Expression-based condition		Sì $m->addCondition($m->expr('..'));	Sì through Query Builder	No Only for query: User::find()->andWhere('...')->all()			No
Criteria Compliance (new record must match condition)		Sì Transaction rollback and exception. Automated-rloading.		No			No
Dynamic criteria		Sì $user->addCondition('is_expired', false)		No Only Querying: User::find()->where(['a' => '1', 'b' => true])->all();			No
Query Building (Convert Model into Query object for further SQL tweaking)
Convert Model into Query Object		Sì $q = $model->action('select');	Sì Model is a Query object. See: Model::where()	Sì \yii\db\ActiveRecord::find()			No		Sì RecordSelector
Raw expression		Sì new Expression('any sql')	Sì DB::raw()	Sì new \yii\db\Expression('...')			Sì	Sì
Nested/Composite Queries/Expressions		Sì Expression can be in any part of query	No	Sì Expression can be in any part of query			No
Reference domain-model field in query		Sì through Expressionable interface	No No fields. Only properties.	No Field is class property.			No	No
field, where, order, limit		Sì Expressions and Parametric values	Sì	Sì \yii\db\ActiveQuery			No	Sì
options, rollup, partition		- Through custom templates, or expressions.					- not sure.
UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT query building		Sì		Sì			No	Sì
REPLACE, TRUNCATE		Sì		- Throught raw sql in \yii\db\Command			- wipe(),
SHOW, DESCRIBE, CALL		- Supported through Expressions or Custom query template		- Throught raw sql in \yii\db\Command			- Automatic schema alter / discovery.
ALTER, CREATE query building		Sì Addon: http://github.com/atk4/schema		Sì			No
User-defined query template		Sì Templates for all queries		Sì (please link doc)			No
full support for OR conditions		Sì Through Object Composition and Expressions	- Partial	-			No only raw query
Use Domain logic in multi-record update		- Supported, but must map fields/values manually.	No	No			No
Data Fetching (different ways to retrieve data from database)
Get All Data (2x array)		Sì	Sì	Sì \yii\db\Query::all()			Sì exportAll()	Sì
Associative Array (id=>value)		No Planned	Sì lists()
Select only required fields		Sì
Typecasting (e.g. DateTime)		Sì						Sì
Import (multiple records)		Sì						Sì
Respect domain model mapping (and criteria)		Sì
Single row		Sì loadAny	Sì	Sì \yii\db\Query::one()				Sì
Single Value		Sì Through action	Sì	Sì \yii\db\Query::scalar()				Sì
Single Column		- may need to map resulting array	Sì	Sì \yii\db\Query::column()			Sì	Sì
Iterator		Sì	Sì	Sì
Bypass persistence mapping		Sì action('select')->getAll()	Sì ?? (e..g prevent date from being transformed into Carbon)
Loading and Saving individual records
Load by ID		Sì load(id)		Sì User::findOne(1)			Sì	Sì get(id)	Sì findByPK
Load by other field		Sì loadBy('field', $value)		Sì User::findOne(['id' => 1])			No	Sì getBy(['propertyName' => 'value']);
Read-only Models		Sì Yes					No
Model without primary key		Sì Yes, but only in Read-only Mode					No	Sì
Specify fields to load		Sì onlyFields()	No Fields load with SELECT *	Sì User::find()->select([])->one()			No	Sì
Save only sends dirty fields		Sì	Sì	Sì			- (there is Dirty support, so I assuming it is supported)	Sì	Sì
Guarded / Fillable properties		Sì Conditions and OnlyFields do same thing but more reliably.	Sì Prevents "create($_GET)" from messing up important fields.
Object Hierarchy Model
Admin extends User, adds criteria (is_admin=1)		Sì Yes, recommended pattern. "User" class adds condition.	No	No Can be done as wrapper: User::findAdmin(..) or custom CDbCriteria			No
Admin extends User, adds accessible fields		Sì Yes, recommended pattern.	No	No			No
Extend model, add Join (Disjoined SubTypes)		Sì Yes. Unlimited number of joins.	No	No			No
Extend model change table		Sì Yes. Used to tweak 3rd party models.					No
Relations/References (One model can relate to another model. NOT A TABLE JOIN)
Model can define relation to other Model		Sì References are implemented as Objects	Sì Relations	Sì Relations			Sì
One-to-Many		Sì $user->hasMany('Orders', new Order());		Sì			Sì
One-to-many traversal strategy		Returns destination model instance with dynamically applied criteria (parent_id=123). No queries are executed. Inserting record into this model will ensure association with parent model.	Returns array of objects that may either be pre-loaded with record data or only contain IDs (lazy-loaded).	Uses classical eager/lazy loading approach. with() can help pre-fetch the data for related entities.			pre-fetch and store objects in an array.
Lazy/Eager-loading		No Anti-pattern	Sì	Sì			Sì
One-to-One		Sì $order->hasOne('user_id', new User());		Sì			Sì
Many-to-Many		Sì $user->addCondition('vip', true)->ref('Orders');		Sì relations() method of an entity can define.
Deep Many-to-Many traversal.	No	Sì $user->ref('Orders')->ref('Payments')->action('count'); No intermediate queries.		- only with "to-one" references: $book->author->address->street; Executes multiple queries.			- only with to-one references. Executes multiple queries.
Cross-Persistence traversal		Sì $user->hasMany('Log', new Log($mongodb));		- No docs.			No
Cross-persistence joins, aggregation, reporting
Multi-persistence join	No	No	No				No
UNION existing models	No	Sì Yes, in add-on https://github.com/atk4/report/. Can join UNION result with more tables.	No				No
Domain-model Aggregation		Sì Group by multiple fields. Apply aggregation functions. Preserve types.					No
Model to Model join		No Planned.					No
Multi-persistence UNION	No	No	No				No
Behaviours / Hooks
Before/After operation		Sì		Sì
Override standard C,R,U,D operations		Sì		Sì
Persistence-specific hooks (to modify Query)		Sì		- (no docs)
User-defined hooks		Sì		Sì
Auditing
Global Auditing		Sì http://www.agiletoolkit.org/data/extensions/audit					No
Store old/new field values		Sì Yes in JSON and user-readable string.		Sì
Revert action (undo) and replay (redo)		Sì	No	No
Reactive actions		Sì Each action will be automatically linked with sub-actions which may be invoked through Hooks.
Store log in any persistence		Sì		No
Override, Add fields to audit log		Record dirty fields before persisting. Type-cast into JSON string and store in a single field of AuditLog Model. This model can be persisted anywhere, table, file, etc.
Custom events		Sì		Sì
Access to record-specific history		Sì $item->ref('AuditLog');		- Through a custom query.
Date of creation, modification		- No but easy to add through hook.		Sì \yii\behaviors\TimestampBehavior					Sì TimestampTrait
User/IP creation, modification		- Easy to add through a hook.		Sì \yii\behaviors\BlameableBehavior
Store incremental revisions		- Easy to add through a hook	Sì
Integration
Field meta-information provided		Type, caption, possible values, mapped field, join table spec, encryption, serialization, UI-specific settings, validation rules.
UI extensions	No	Sì CRUD, Form, Table, Grid, Entity-manager. (see https://github.com/atk4/ad)	No	No			No
API extensions		Sì RestFULL API, automated CRUD operations + RPC https://github.com/atk4/api
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