OrderExtension and OrderFilter pass string sort directions, deprecated since doctrine/orm 3.7 #8648

API Platform affected: 4.3.21, and the current heads of 4.4, 5.0 and main

The doctrine/orm 3.7 deprecates string based sort directions in QueryBuilder::orderBy() and addOrderBy(). It wants the PHP 8.6 \SortDirection enum instead, which ORM itself requires through symfony/polyfill-php86. See "Deprecated using strings or null as sort directions" in https://github.com/doctrine/orm/blob/3.7.x/UPGRADE.md

OrderExtension and OrderFilter still pass 'ASC' and 'DESC' literals:

• https://github.com/api-platform/core/blob/main/src/Doctrine/Orm/Extension/OrderExtension.php#L72
• https://github.com/api-platform/core/blob/main/src/Doctrine/Orm/Extension/OrderExtension.php#L85
• https://github.com/api-platform/core/blob/main/src/Doctrine/Orm/Filter/OrderFilter.php#L281
• https://github.com/api-platform/core/blob/main/src/Doctrine/Orm/Filter/OrderFilter.php#L284

Line 85 matters most. collection.order defaults to ASC, so every Doctrine collection without its own order gets addOrderBy('o.id', 'ASC'). Any app on doctrine/orm 3.7 sees this on its first collection request:

Passing string as $order to Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder::addOrderBy() is deprecated, use an instance of SortDirection instead.
(QueryBuilder.php:1518 called by QueryBuilder.php:1254, https://github.com/doctrine/orm/issues/11313, package doctrine/orm)

The message names QueryBuilder.php as the caller, and doctrine/deprecations reports it only once per process, so it took me a while to trace it back to API Platform. We fixed all our own orderBy() calls and it kept coming.

How to reproduce

PHP 8.4, Symfony 8.1, doctrine/orm 3.7.3, deprecations visible (for example PHPUnit with failOnDeprecation). Request any Doctrine-backed GetCollection.

Possible solution

As the API Platform still allows doctrine/orm ^2.17 || ^3.3, passing the enum unconditionally would break older ORM versions. A small helper could map 'ASC'/'DESC' to \SortDirection::Ascending/Descending when the installed ORM is 3.7 or newer, and return the string otherwise. The version check could use i.e. Composer\InstalledVersions, or reflection on the second parameter of QueryBuilder::addOrderBy(). OrderFilter needs the same mapping, including the nulls handling on line 281.

I could prepare such PR if proposed solution fits. Which branch should it target then, 4.4?