Symfony doctrine ManyToMany unidirectional mapping - symfony

Question

Well, back again, i'll try to simplify my question as much as i can.
First of all, i have 2 Entities
Post
PostRating
I've created unidirectional ManyToMany relation between them, because I only need ratings to be added to each Post, if I try to map Post to PostRating too, I get Circular Reference error.
Post Entity, it creates 3rd table post_has_rating, no mapping inside PostRating Entity, It workes like expected, rating collection is added to each post, but if i want to find one rating, and edit it if needed, then it comes to be bigger headache than expected.
/**
* Post have many PostRating
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="PostRating")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="post_has_rating",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="user_id", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="postrating_id", referencedColumnName="id", unique=true)}
* )
*/
protected $ratings;
PostController thumbAction, simple word "ratingAction"
/**
* Search related videos from youtube
* #Route("/post/thumb", name="post_thumb")
* #param Request $request
* #return string
*/
public function thumbAction (Request $request) {
$content = json_decode($request->getContent());
$serializer = $this->get('serializer');
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$postRatingRepo = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository(PostRating::class);
$postRepo = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository(Post::class);
$me = $this->getUser()->getId();
/** #var PostRating $rating */
$rating = $postRatingRepo->findOneBy(['userId' => $me]);
/** #var Post $post */
$post = $postRepo->find($content->id);
if ($post->getRatings()->contains($rating)) {
$post->removeRating($rating);
$em->remove($rating);
}
$rating = new PostRating();
$rating->setUserId($me);
switch ($content->action) {
//NVM about those hardcoded words, they are about to be removed
case 'up':
$rating->setRating(1);
break;
case 'down':
$rating->setRating(0);
break;
}
$post->addRating($rating);
$em->persist($rating);
$em->persist($post);
$em->flush();
return new JsonResponse( $serializer->normalize( ['success' => 'Post thumbs up created'] ) );
}
Problems: $rating = $postRatingRepo->findOneBy(['userId' => $me]); this row needs to have postId too for $post->getRatings()->contains($rating), right now im getting all the raitings, that I have ever created, but it Throws error if i add it, Unknown column
Should i create custom repository, so i can create something like "findRating" with DQL?
OR
Can i make Post and PostRating Entities mapped to each other more simple way, i don't really want many-to-many relation, because I don't see point of using it

Answer 1

Considering you want to keep OneToMany unidirectional here is my suggestion
create a custom repository for your Post Entity
namespace AppBundle\Repository;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
class PostRepository extends EntityRepository
{
public function findOneRatingByUser($post, $user)
{
$query = $this->createQueryBuilder('p')
->select('r')
->innerJoin('p.ratings', 'r')
->where('p.id = :post')
->andWhere('r.user = :user')
->setParameter('post', $post)
->setParameter('user', $user)
->getQuery()
;
return $query->getOneOrNullResult();
}
}
Then in your controller:
public function thumbAction (Request $request)
{
$content = json_decode($request->getContent());
$serializer = $this->get('serializer');
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$postRepo = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository(Post::class);
$me = $this->getUser()->getId();
/** #var Post $post */
$post = $postRepo->find($content->id);
$rating = $postRepo->findOneRatingByUser($post->getId(), $me);
if (null === $rating) {
$rating = new PostRating();
$rating->setUserId($me);
}
switch ($content->action) {
//NVM about those hardcoded words, they are about to be removed
case 'up':
$rating->setRating(1);
break;
case 'down':
$rating->setRating(0);
break;
}
$post->addRating($rating);
$em->persist($rating);
$em->persist($post);
$em->flush();
return new JsonResponse( $serializer->normalize( ['success' => 'Post thumbs up created'] ) );
}
If you want your custom repository to work dont forget to declare it in your entity
/**
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\PostRepository")
*/
class Post