Publication

phil/doctrine-behaviours

Type	Kind	Role
`Contract\Publishable`	interface	The state in the workflow's own accessors, `isPublished()`, the dates
`PublishableEntity`	trait	The columns `publication_state`, 32 characters, `published_at` and `unpublished_at`
`PublicationWorkflow`	constants, `definition()`, `markingStore()`	The state machine, under the name `phil_publication`
`PublicationListener`	listener: `workflow.<name>.entered`	Stamps the dates, in UTC

The state is kept by symfony/workflow, an optional dependency, so a guard or a listener of the application can hold or follow a publication like any other transition.

Transition	From	To
`publish`	`draft`, `unpublished`	`published`
`unpublish`	`published`	`unpublished`

Entering	`published_at`	`unpublished_at`
`published`	set to now, unless the record already has one	forgotten
`unpublished`	kept	set to now

The date of the first publication stays when a record is withdrawn and published again. A record that was given a date beforehand, by an import or an editor choosing the date shown, keeps it. Flushing stays the application's, as with every workflow.

Outside Symfony:

$dispatcher->addListener('workflow.'.PublicationWorkflow::NAME.'.entered', new PublicationListener($clock));
$workflow = new StateMachine(PublicationWorkflow::definition(), PublicationWorkflow::markingStore(), $dispatcher, PublicationWorkflow::NAME);

$workflow->apply($article, PublicationWorkflow::PUBLISH);
$manager->flush();

Publishing at a set time

A date in the future is a job for a scheduler, not a column: the state changes when the time comes, through the workflow, with its guards. phil/scheduled-transitions-bundle does that for any object workflow.registry knows, and reaches this behaviour with the transition names alone, so neither package depends on the other. The application writes the SubjectResolver that finds its records:

$scheduler->schedule(ResourceReference::of('article', $article->id), 'publish', new DateTimeImmutable('2026-11-09 09:00'));

A workflow with more places, such as a review before publication, keeps these three names for the listener to stamp the dates; the bundle then leaves its declaration to the application.