Doctrine2 relation for non Id column - symfony

Question

I'm building a simple web-service using Symfony 3, Doctrine 2.5 and stuck at ORM relations described below in simplified structure.
I have an Action entity containing many actions with ManyToOne relation...
class Action
{
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="\AppBundle\Entity\Status")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(referencedColumnName="code", nullable=false)
*/
private $status;
and the Status Entity with a few statuses.
class Status
{
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(type="integer", unique=true)
*/
private $code;
I cannot get proper way to set referencedColumnName="code" column (not 'Id' as usual) for Action entity.
Configured this way repo throws wxception at persist moment with "Notice: Undefined index: code";
I guess that it is mappedBy or inversedBy annotation parameter... but can't figure out "how".

Answer 1

Unfortunately it's not supported in Doctrine (reference).
You may edit your Status entity like this (ensure that code is set before persist):
class Status
{
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="code", type="integer", unique=true)
* #ORM\Id
*/
private $code;
}
If autoincremented field is your requirement you can take a look on this answer for possible solutions.

Answer 2

Just thought I'd add you can still use the non-primary keys as many to many, by using the entity itself as the join table. This will work but you still need to set your relationship keys correctly.
Example:
/**
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Car {
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="bigint", nullable=false)
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="registration_code", type="text", length=128, nullable=false)
* #var string
*/
public $registrationCode;
/**
* #var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Registration", mappedBy="Cars")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="car",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="id", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="registration_code", referencedColumnName="registration_code")}
* )
*/
public $Registrations;
public function __construct() {
$this->Cars = new ArrayCollection();
}
}
/**
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Registration {
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="bigint", nullable=false)
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="registration_code", type="text", length=128, nullable=false)
* #var string
*/
public $registrationCode;
/**
* #var ArrayCollection
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Car", mappedBy="Registrations")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="car",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="registration_code", referencedColumnName="registration_code")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="id", referencedColumnName="id")}
* )
*/
public $Cars;
public function __construct() {
$this->Cars = new ArrayCollection();
}
}
The upside is that it works fine as a workaround.
Keep in mind a few things:
it's a collection not a single instance;
column has to be managed manually on your end;
you must set up constraints correctly (indexes, keys, etc);
check your queries still perform!