symfony2 embedded form won't persist to database - symfony

Question

I followed the documentation for this here: but could not get the example to persist to the database for the embedded form; the Plant class saved just fine. I am under the assumption that the persist and flush methods in the controller handle the persisting of both entities. Is this wrong to assume? Do I need to intercept it and set it manually in the controller before flush?
At any rate, here is my code:
Plant Entity:
<?php
/**
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Repository\PlantRepository")
* #ORM\Table(name="plant")
* #ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
*/
class Plant
{
/**
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="array", nullable=true)
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture", inversedBy="plants", cascade={"persist"})
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="picture")
*/
protected $pictures;
//...
public function __construct()
{
$this->pictures = new ArrayCollection;
}
//...
/**
* Add pictures
*
* #param \Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture $pictures
* #return Plant
*/
public function addPicture(\Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture $pictures)
{
$pictures->addPlant($this);
$this->pictures[] = $pictures;
}
/**
* Remove pictures
*
* #param \Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture $pictures
*/
public function removePicture(\Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture $pictures)
{
$this->pictures->removeElement($pictures);
}
/**
* Get pictures
*
* #return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getPictures()
{
return $this->pictures;
}
}
Picture Entity:
<?php
namespace Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #ORM\Entity
* #ORM\Table(name="Picture")
*/
class Picture
{
/**
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
//...
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="text")
*/
public $path;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="array", nullable=true)
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant", mappedBy="pictures")
*/
private $plants;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct()
{
$this->plants = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
//...
/**
* Set path
*
* #param string $path
* #return Picture
*/
public function setPath($path)
{
$this->path = $path;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get path
*
* #return string
*/
public function getPath()
{
return $this->path;
}
/**
* Add plants
*
* #param \Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant $plants
* #return Picture
*/
public function addPlant(\Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant $plants)
{
if (!$this->plants->contains($plants)) {
$this->plants->add($plants);
}
}
/**
* Remove plants
*
* #param \Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant $plants
*/
public function removePlant(\Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant $plants)
{
$this->plants->removeElement($plants);
}
/**
* Get plants
*
* #return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getPlants()
{
return $this->plants;
}
}
Plant Form:
<?php
namespace Blogger\BlogBundle\Form;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolver;
class PlantForm extends AbstractType
{
public function __construct($em) {
$this->em = $em;
}
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
//...
$builder->add('pictures', 'collection', array(
'type' => new PictureForm(),
'options' => array(
'data_class' => 'Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture'),
'allow_add' => true,
'allow_delete' => true,
'by_reference' => false,
));
}
public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'data_class' => 'Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant',
));
}
public function getName()
{
return 'plant';
}
}
Picture Form:
<?php
namespace Blogger\BlogBundle\Form;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolver;
class PictureForm extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
//...
$builder->add('path', 'textarea');
//...
}
public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'data_class' => 'Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture',
));
}
public function getName()
{
return 'picture';
}
}
Plant Controller:
public function newAction(Request $request){
$plant = new Plant();
$image1 = new Picture();
$plant->getPictures()->add($image1);
$form = $this->createForm(new PlantForm($this->getDoctrine()->getManager()), $plant);
if ($request->getMethod() == 'POST') {
$form->handleRequest($request);
if ($form->isValid()) {
$em = $this->getDoctrine()
->getEntityManager();
$em->persist($plant);
$em->flush();
return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('route', array(
'id' => $plant->getId()
)));
}
}
return $this->render('Bundle:Plant:new.html.twig', array(
'form' => $form->createView()
));
}
I suspect I don't have my annotations for the database mapped correctly. When I open phpadmin, there are no relationships defined in the database.

Answer 1

I figured it out. It was indeed an error with my annotations. This question was actually answered in a post here. For my solution, it looked like this:
Plant entity:
class Plant
{
//..
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture", inversedBy="plants", cascade={"persist"})
* #ORM\JoinColumn(nullable=false, onDelete="CASCADE")
*/
protected $pictures;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct()
{
$this->pictures = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function addPicture(\Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Picture $pictures)
{
$pictures->addPlant($this);
$this->pictures[] = $pictures;
}
//..
}
class Picture
{
//..
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant", mappedBy="pictures", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
private $plants;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct()
{
$this->plants = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
public function addPlant(\Blogger\BlogBundle\Entity\Plant $plants)
{
if (!$this->plants->contains($plants)) {
$this->plants->add($plants);
}
}
//..
}
Controller:
public function newAction(Request $request){
$plant = new Plant();
if ($request->getMethod() == 'POST') {
$form->handleRequest($request);
if ($form->isValid()) {
$em = $this->getDoctrine()
->getEntityManager();
$em->persist($plant);
$em->flush();
return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('BloggerBlogBundle_plant_library_show', array(
'id' => $plant->getId()
)));
}
}
return $this->render('BloggerBlogBundle:Library:new.html.twig', array(
'form' => $form->createView()
));
}
Maybe a useful note to others: this mapping created a new table called plant_picture which holds the association. I was surprised to learn that a "picture" column was NOT added to the Plant entity at all.