Improving Symfony/Doctrine Documentation: Using Constructors for DTOs

The article highlights a flaw in the documentation of Symfony and Doctrine, stating that they don't emphasize the use of constructors for Data Transfer Objects (DTOs). The author argues that this omission has led to numerous bugs in codebases. They explain that constructors can enforce the creation of valid objects and make it easier to catch errors during development. The article provides an example from Symfony's documentation on persisting objects to the database, where the lack of constructor usage leaves room for arbitrary invalid objects. The author suggests that updating the documentation to promote the use of constructors instead of getters/setters for required properties would greatly improve the developer experience and reduce bugs. This information is crucial for developers using Symfony and Doctrine, as it highlights a best practice that can enhance code quality and prevent issues in production.