.. index::
   single: DependencyInjection; Factories

Using a Factory to Create Services
==================================

Symfony's Service Container provides multiple features to control the creation
of objects, allowing you to specify arguments passed to the constructor as well
as calling methods and setting parameters.

However, sometimes you need to apply the `factory design pattern`_ to delegate
the object creation to some special object called "the factory". In those cases,
the service container can call a method on your factory to create the object
rather than directly instantiating the class.

Static Factories
----------------

Suppose you have a factory that configures and returns a new ``NewsletterManager``
object by calling the static ``createNewsletterManager()`` method::

    class NewsletterManagerStaticFactory
    {
        public static function createNewsletterManager()
        {
            $newsletterManager = new NewsletterManager();

            // ...

            return $newsletterManager;
        }
    }

To make the ``NewsletterManager`` object available as a service, use the
``factory`` option to define which method of which class must be called to
create its object:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # config/services.yaml
        services:
            # ...

            App\Email\NewsletterManager:
                # the first argument is the class and the second argument is the static method
                factory: ['App\Email\NewsletterManagerStaticFactory', 'createNewsletterManager']

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- config/services.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

            <services>
                <service id="App\Email\NewsletterManager">
                    <!-- the first argument is the class and the second argument is the static method -->
                    <factory class="App\Email\NewsletterManagerStaticFactory" method="createNewsletterManager"/>

                    <!-- if the factory class is the same as the service class, you can omit
                         the 'class' attribute and define just the 'method' attribute:

                         <factory method="createNewsletterManager"/>
                    -->
                </service>
            </services>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // config/services.php
        namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;

        use App\Email\NewsletterManager;
        use App\Email\NewsletterManagerStaticFactory;

        return function(ContainerConfigurator $configurator) {
            $services = $configurator->services();

            $services->set(NewsletterManager::class)
                // the first argument is the class and the second argument is the static method
                ->factory([NewsletterManagerStaticFactory::class, 'createNewsletterManager']);
        };


.. note::

    When using a factory to create services, the value chosen for class
    has no effect on the resulting service. The actual class name
    only depends on the object that is returned by the factory. However,
    the configured class name may be used by compiler passes and therefore
    should be set to a sensible value.

Non-Static Factories
--------------------

If your factory is using a regular method instead of a static one to configure
and create the service, instantiate the factory itself as a service too.
Configuration of the service container then looks like this:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # config/services.yaml
        services:
            # ...

            # first, create a service for the factory
            App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory: ~

            # second, use the factory service as the first argument of the 'factory'
            # option and the factory method as the second argument
            App\Email\NewsletterManager:
                factory: ['@App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory', 'createNewsletterManager']

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- config/services.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

            <services>
                <!-- first, create a service for the factory -->
                <service id="App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory"/>

                <!-- second, use the factory service as the first argument of the 'factory'
                     option and the factory method as the second argument -->
                <service id="App\Email\NewsletterManager">
                    <factory service="App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory"
                        method="createNewsletterManager"
                    />
                </service>
            </services>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // config/services.php
        namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;

        use App\Email\NewsletterManager;
        use App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory;

        return function(ContainerConfigurator $configurator) {
            $services = $configurator->services();

            // first, create a service for the factory
            $services->set(NewsletterManagerFactory::class);

            // second, use the factory service as the first argument of the 'factory'
            // method and the factory method as the second argument
            $services->set(NewsletterManager::class)
                ->factory([ref(NewsletterManagerFactory::class), 'createNewsletterManager']);
        };

.. _factories-invokable:

Invokable Factories
-------------------

Suppose you now change your factory method to ``__invoke()`` so that your
factory service can be used as a callback::

    class InvokableNewsletterManagerFactory
    {
        public function __invoke()
        {
            $newsletterManager = new NewsletterManager();

            // ...

            return $newsletterManager;
        }
    }

Services can be created and configured via invokable factories by omitting the
method name, just as routes can reference
:ref:`invokable controllers <controller-service-invoke>`.

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # config/services.yaml
        services:
            # ...

            App\Email\NewsletterManager:
                class:   App\Email\NewsletterManager
                factory: '@App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory'

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- config/services.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

            <services>
                <!-- ... -->

                <service id="App\Email\NewsletterManager"
                         class="App\Email\NewsletterManager">
                    <factory service="App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory"/>
                </service>
            </services>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // config/services.php
        namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;

        use App\Email\NewsletterManager;
        use App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory;

        return function(ContainerConfigurator $configurator) {
            $services = $configurator->services();

            $services->set(NewsletterManager::class)
                ->args([ref('templating')])
                ->factory(ref(NewsletterManagerFactory::class));
        };

.. _factories-passing-arguments-factory-method:

Passing Arguments to the Factory Method
---------------------------------------

.. tip::

    Arguments to your factory method are :ref:`autowired <services-autowire>` if
    that's enabled for your service.

If you need to pass arguments to the factory method you can use the ``arguments``
option. For example, suppose the ``createNewsletterManager()`` method in the
previous examples takes the ``templating`` service as an argument:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # config/services.yaml
        services:
            # ...

            App\Email\NewsletterManager:
                factory:   ['@App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory', createNewsletterManager]
                arguments: ['@templating']

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- config/services.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd">

            <services>
                <!-- ... -->

                <service id="App\Email\NewsletterManager">
                    <factory service="App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory" method="createNewsletterManager"/>
                    <argument type="service" id="templating"/>
                </service>
            </services>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // config/services.php
        namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;

        use App\Email\NewsletterManager;
        use App\Email\NewsletterManagerFactory;

        return function(ContainerConfigurator $configurator) {
            $services = $configurator->services();

            $services->set(NewsletterManager::class)
                ->factory([ref(NewsletterManagerFactory::class), 'createNewsletterManager'])
                ->args([ref('templating')])
            ;
        };

.. _`factory design pattern`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_(object-oriented_programming)